Understanding statistics 1

Abstract

Understanding the basics of statistics can be quite challenging. One of the problems with statistical analysis is the manner in which it is presented, which is often rather disjointed. This series of articles will attempt to approach statistics by keeping issues in specific categories, to try to facilitate understanding of key concepts. This first article will examine the need for statistical analysis, explore the development of the null hypothesis, and describe what general domains of statistics are used in scientific studies. © EBD 2010.