There are two main branches of stat

There are two main branches of statistics, descriptive and inferential. To understand the differences between them, it is important to know the definitions to two terms. A population is the data set that is the focus of interest and involves all elements under investigation (e.g., all of the streams in your state). However, a sample is a subset of data collected from that population or the collection of observations actually available for analysis. It is a finite part of a population with properties studied to gain information about the “whole” (e.g., all streams in your state accessible from a main road). The size of the sample can be dependent on goals of the study, time, funding, andaccessibility of the population. Descriptive statistics involves the organization, summarization, and description of data sets. Inferential statistics, on the other hand, is the process of drawing conclusions about an entire populationbased only on the results obtained from a small sample of that population.