AP Stat Unit 1: Single Variable Data

 

Chapter 1:  Describing Distributions

Chapter 2:  Normal Distributions

 

The central idea of this unit is that a set of numbers (a DISTRIBUTION) can be best understood when described VISUALLY (by a graph like a dotplot, histogram, stemplot or boxplot) and NUMERICALLY (by MEASURES OF CENTER like mean or median, and by MEASURES OF SPREAD like STANDARD DEVIATION and IQR).  The description should also address SHAPE:  is the distribution SYMMETRIC or SKEWED?  So as a result of your work in Chapter 1, you should be able to fully describe a set of data using the concepts of SHAPE, CENTER and SPREAD.

 

In Chapter 2 we see that a distribution can be approximated by a smooth curve called a DENSITY CURVE whose area is always 1 and whose median is the equal-areas line; that many real-world distributions can be approximated by THE NORMAL DISTRIBUTION, and that various normal distributions can be compared by creating THE STANDARD NORMAL DISTRIBUTION.  Areas under the standard normal density curve can be found from a table or on the calculator.

 

 

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