STATISTIC CONCEPTS
When using statistics to apply to an industrial, scientific, or social issue, you would start with a method or population on which you wish to study. This can be of a countries population, of molecules contained with a particular structure, or maybe items manufactured by a specific factory over a specified time frame. It could however, be a process studied at different times; statistics gathered on this kind of data constitutes what is known as a time series. Instead of collecting data on an overall population, it may be the case in certain studies where a selected subset of the population is used, known as a sample. Data is compiled about the sample in an observational or experimental setting. The data is then given to be statistically analysed, this is useful for two similar purposes, inference and description.
The theory of correlation is especially notable. Statistical analysis of a data collection can show that two variables are both inclined to vary, as if they are linked. For example, an analysis of annual income and age of death between people may show that poor people are likely to have shorter lives than more prosperous people.