why is statistics important in science?
602267
variation. variation is every where. statistics is also important in business, nursing, ect. it gives you the tools to analyze the data collected and to know what the variation is telling you. there is a book called lady tasting tea and gives you info on the great statistician of the 20th century and the influence they had on the world. easy read story format.
31132
A lot of people refuse to believe that statistics can apply to them.  If you focus on anecdotal evidence, you can ignore broader trends.  If you understand the ubiquity of probablity, you'd be less likely to engage in dangerous behaviors where the odds are agaist you (even though you might know some of the rare exceptions to the rule in your everyday life).
270990
Descriptive Statistics do no intend to "fit" a distribution on the data or to predict new observations given the data.\nInstead, it pretends to "describe" the data in terms of its central tendency measures (mean, median, etc.) as well as dispersion statistics (variance,  rank, inter-quartile rank, etc.), bias statistics, etc.\nSummaries like histograms are also a good example of descriptive statistics.
748621
Some people may find statistics class to be easy, but most students find university statistics classes to be among the hardest undergraduate classes that  people take, particularly if they are not real good at math.  I saw people change their majors just to AVOID statistics.  On the other hand, there is great power in understanding statistics because statistical measurements are used so much, and so often used incorrectly.  One of the only college textbooks I've kept (I'm 55+) is my "biostatistical analysis" book, and there are times when I actually pull it off the shelf.   So for strength, I would say great power and clarity to solve questions if used properly.  Statistics are often the basis for scientific proof.  Good data backed by statistical analysis is hard to refute.   For weakness, I'd say statistics are often manipulated or based on pre-judgments, for example statistics of public opinion based on leading questions.  The book below is a classic.  It's easy to understand and will show you all the ways that people abuse statistics.  The second book is still the standard textbook in the biological sciences, even I bought mine so many years ago.
318936
This is a very good question. In biology, where you are measuring things like length, height, number of bristles,  it is because they are determined by a large number of genes and environmental factors that tend to be additive in effect, rather than multiplicative. Not all things are distributed normally, which is why we somteimes need transformations to do statistics on them that assume normality. Those that aren't normal involve other than additive interactions, or some other factor that doesn't produce that kind of distribution.
222877
There are some fields where accurate measurements are not possible.In such cases statistical tools are very useful;eg- significance testing & hypothesis could be very useful where the size of population is either very large or unknown.For this purpous various formulas have been derived.\nhence the statistical tools can be used to analyse situations like change in population after 10 years,degree of defects in blubs manufactured etc.
892269
In Psychology, you will also need to have a fairly solid command of statistics.  THAT is the one that is probably the most direct application of math which you will need in a Psych major, so I would recommend that you focus your paper on that.  If for nothing else, you may also need statistics if you have some kind of editorial, persuasive paper, technical or business writing writing,  or really any sort of informative article.  \n\nThere may also be occasional persuasive papers for either English or Psych in which you will have to explain some sort of Logic, which can actually be expressed mathematically.  This is a side note, however, and is also a stretch.  It is probably better for you to focus your paper on simple statistics..
598935
Used to set insurance premiums, the probability of getting into accidents based on your car type/age\n\nFor evaluating worker performance, ie you're on time 95% of the time or only 80%\n\nHow can you actually tell when two sets of data are different? Need statistics.\n\n A lot of jobs in stats!!
424307
I started writing this out myself, and I found a great answer, much better than any I could give you. Here are a few quotes, and the whole article is at the URL noted in the sources.\n\n"The importance of calculus is that most of the laws of science do not provide direct information about the values of variables which can be directly measured. In other words, if you are lost, then physics will not help you find your way home, because there are no laws of physics that provide direct information about position ... many of the most important principles in science are rules for the way variables change. For instance, physics tells you how velocity will change in various situations -- i.e. it tells you about acceleration.\n\nThis is why it's important to have a mathematical way of talking about change. That's why you see the concept of the derivative used throughout science -- in physics, chemistry, biology, economics, even psychology. \n\n...\n\nThe primary importance of calculus in the hard sciences is that it provides a language, a conceptual framework for describing relationships that would be difficult to discuss in any other language.\n\nWhat is worthwhile for students to gain from a calculus course is the ability to read books that use the language of calculus and, at least to some extent, follow the derivations in those books. Unfortunately, being being proficient at the sort of [garbage] skills required to get a good grade in a calculus course is not a lot of help in this respect.\n\nI tell my calculus students that their grades are probably not a very good indicator of being able to do well in future courses. What's more important is whether they make the effort to follow the reasoning given in class and in the text. The most important part of the course (at least when I teach it) is the part that's never tested on."\n\nI *like* this guy.
314956
This Electronic Statistics Textbook offers training in the understanding and application of statistics. \n\nExploratory Data Analysis is also a good site\n\n\navailable at the site below
1034639
Science is a good discipline in teaching people how to think.  It matters very little what you study.  All subjects within science are based on the scientific method that is structured and logical.  Having that foundation will allow you to methodically solve any problems you may encounter in life, whether the problem originated in finance, business, science, philosophy, etc.
363839
in order to do statistics you need data\n\nie.  we need number to do this
109529
The standard deviation tells you how far away something is from the average.  You can do a standard deviation on any set of data, however most people are familiar with the Normal Distribution.
913954
It has everything to do with science.  There is a mathematical explanation for many things in science.  You can't really separate one from the other.
466776
Statistics studies, among other things, deviations from normals and can help to explain errors (as well as help explain how errors are propagated and where their sources can be).\n\nFor example, if you have a numerical amount with an error and you multiply that value by something known and constant (like conversion from USD to Euros, for example), that error will be multiplied by that conversion rate.\n\nStatistics uses error calculation such as standard deviation (how much a value can vary from the average amount) and goes very far into detail about sums of errors etc. and how they affect averages, errors, and final values.\n\nAdditinoally, there are some formulae that are used all throughout the sciences that can be applied to accounting, and those sciences use statistics, again, to calculate errors.  For example, growth and decay of a radioactive substance has a certain formula that uses exponential (e to the power of something), but this is also used to calculate economic growth rates and can be applied to the stock market (it can also be used to explain traffic jams and other civil engineering problems).
1139186
statistics would be numbers and facts that relate to your topic (for example: # of states that allow gay marriage) \n\n"illustrating the numbers" just means that you put the numbers that you found (your statistics) into a graph or chart.
902755
I hate statistics.  As a math and chemistry major in college I never needed to take a statistics course.  A probability course was the closest I got to that.\n\nThere are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up, and the kind you make up. \n- Rex Stout\n\nThere are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. \n--Benjamin Disraeli