1

STATISTIC SYMBOLS


All the elements between two points in a distribution

Infinity

a The y intercept for the line = a + b x .

Alpha, the significance level of a hypothesis test, the probability of a Type I error

b The slope of the line = a + b x

Beta, the probability of a Type II error

2
Chi-square. The X
2
statistic has approximately the Chi-square distribution when the proper
conditions are met

df Degrees of freedom

F The F statistic, used in ANOVA hypothesis testing

Fe The expected frequency

Fo The observed frequency

Gm Geometric mean

H
o
Null hypothesis

H
a
Alternative hypothesis

Hm Harmonic mean

m Margin of error. This is the quantity added to and subtracted from the point estimate to make a
confidence interval. Also used for the slope of a line but in statistics b is usually used for slope.

Md Median

Mo Mode
2

The mean of the population. This is the Greek letter mu, pronounced, "mew"

p
The mean of the sampling distribution of P. This is the average (mean) of the sample proportions,
taking all possible samples of a given size n.

X
The mean of the sampling distribution of X. This is the mean of the sample means, taking all
possible samples of a given size n.

N The number of elements in a population distribution

n The size of a sample, that is, how many numbers in the sample. When there is more than one
sample, the sizes are denoted n
1
, n
2
, and so on.

P The proportion of successes in a sample.

p The population proportion. The actual proportion of successes in the population.

P< Probability of a Type I error

Q
1
First quartile where 25% of the data points fall below

Q
3
Third quartile where 25% of the data points lie above

r Pearson's sample correlation coefficient

r
2
The coefficient of determination

r
s
Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.

s The standard deviation of a sample.

s
2
The variance of a sample

The standard deviation of the population. This is the Greek letter sigma.

2
The variance of the population.

p
The standard deviation of the sampling distribution of p. This is the standard deviation of the
sample proportions, taking all possible samples of a given size n

3

x
The standard deviation of the sampling distribution of x. This is the standard deviation of the
sample means, taking all possible samples of a given size.

t The t statistic.

X A distribution, also called the distribution for the independent variable

X The mean of a sample (x-bar); the average of the data points

X The grand mean, the mean of all the observations in all the samples.

X
i
Any individual score

X
1
The first element [number] in a distribution


X
2
The second element [number] in a distribution


X
n
The last element in a distribution


The predicted y value from a regression line.

Y A distribution that is not the same as X, also called the dependent variable

z The standard score that tells how many standard deviations from the mean a score is.

Sum of all the values [numbers] of x in the distribution (sum of x)

2
Square all the values [numbers] first then add them to each other (sum of x-squared)

()
2
Add all the elements then square the summation

Y Multiple X
1
by Y
1
, X
2
by Y
2
, , X
n
by Y
n
and sum the distribution