Statistics is not fun

ninjastar · February 16, 2021, 10:19pm

Oh man, I thought statistics would be a breeze after calculus. And, I guess it is sort of easy. But this online format means I am basically teaching the entire thing to myself because the class is so poorly structured. But I did all my homework that was due this month, and am now taking a break before jumping into programming tomorrow, and my exam on Friday. My poor brain got a workout trying to figure out how to calculate standard deviations (answer: it is sooo long and boring and sucks).

Leave me congratulations, for powering through and getting all my answers correct. I am an ego-driven person at heart, and I need to be told how smart I am so I can believe it again after that mental workout.

everhopeful · February 16, 2021, 10:22pm

Congratulations on getting through it. I never studied statistics. There’s a standard deviation button on calculators but I never knew what it did!

You’re a genius !

ninjastar · February 16, 2021, 10:24pm

It basically does this

But be warned that small equation is actually like 20 steps when you have to calculate it by hand ugh.

everhopeful · February 16, 2021, 10:28pm

I feel like a dog that’s been shown a card trick! (To quote Bill Hicks)

Raelyn_Fenn · February 16, 2021, 10:30pm

Nice work Ninjastar. Statistics is interesting but not always easy to grasp from my experience

ninjastar · February 16, 2021, 10:31pm

So you have to find the mean (average) of all the data points, then subtract the mean from each data point. Then you square all the results, then add those answers together. Then you divide by one less than the total number of data points. That gives you the variance. You take the square root to find the standard deviation.

Raelyn_Fenn · February 16, 2021, 10:33pm

Information overload … But it does sound somewhat familiar.

ninjastar · February 16, 2021, 10:37pm

Just imagine doing it for all 20 data points. No thanks,I will be using an SD calculator from now on whenever I can get away with it.

jukebox · February 16, 2021, 10:44pm

so proud of you…I sure haven’t done anything like that since structural mathematics in college…good for you !

firemonkey · February 16, 2021, 11:05pm

https://www.mathsisfun.com/data/standard-deviation.html

LevelJ1 · February 16, 2021, 11:17pm

Killin it ninjaaaaa

Twialine · February 16, 2021, 11:20pm

That pic… It looks hard… Congrats on powering through! And you are so smart for doing it

johnnyboy1 · February 16, 2021, 11:37pm

It’s a different way of doing math. Probability was hard for me. Statistics is way easier, but I guess it is different. Class, teacher, circumstances all play a role.

Pianogal · February 16, 2021, 11:39pm

Great job!!! It was really hard but you pushed through!!! That’s very inspiring!!!

rogueone · February 16, 2021, 11:48pm

Way to go @ninjastar . Very proud of you for putting in the time and achieving that with math. Very impressive and good luck with the rest of your studies. You can do this!

dcragg65 · February 17, 2021, 12:56am

It looks like C++ programming language except a little more confusing lol

Nicely done!!

crimby · February 17, 2021, 1:33am

Congratulations! Teaching yourself statistics is quite an achievement. We had a statistics class for psychology when I was at school. It was quite a challenge.

yinyang · February 17, 2021, 1:50am

Statistics and probability is useful when applied to the correct sample size. The probability of an outcome or event to occur is dependent on the ratio or percentage number.

I applaud your efforts @ninjastar

Moonbeam · February 17, 2021, 1:54am

Also in Excel.

Moonbeam · February 17, 2021, 2:03am