--- title: Descriptive Statistics description: This field involves summarizing and organizing features of a dataset through numerical calculations and graphs. Learners will understand how to calculate measures of central tendency, dispersion, and distribution shape to describe data accurately. category: programming-tech subcategory: data-science difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/descriptive-statistics --- # Descriptive Statistics This field involves summarizing and organizing features of a dataset through numerical calculations and graphs. Learners will understand how to calculate measures of central tendency, dispersion, and distribution shape to describe data accurately. ## Available Resources 1 Videos • 3 Books • 3 Courses • 5 Websites ## Videos ### 1. Types of Data: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval/Ratio - Statistics Help Short animated explainer distinguishing nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio measurement scales with everyday examples. After watching you can classify a variable by its level of measurement and tell which summary statistics and graphs are legitimate for it. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZxnzfnt5v8 **Tags:** levels-of-measurement, data-types, categorical-data, statistics-basics ## Websites ### 1. Distill.pub Peer-reviewed web journal of machine learning explanations, publishing interactive articles on topics like feature visualisation, attention and neural network interpretability. Archive remains readable, though the journal went on indefinite hiatus in 2021 and no longer publishes. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://distill.pub/ **Tags:** deep-learning, neural-networks, interpretability, interactive-visualization, machine-learning ### 2. stattrek.com StatTrek is an online statistics resource that provides clear tutorials and explanations of probability and statistics. It also features free calculators for distributions, hypothesis tests, confidence intervals, and other statistical methods. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://stattrek.com **Tags:** websites, science-research, scientific-method ### 3. Wolfram MathWorld **Author:** Eric W. Weisstein MathWorld is an online mathematics encyclopedia from Wolfram Research offering detailed, browsable articles on topics across the math spectrum, including algebra, geometry, calculus, and number theory. Each entry includes definitions, theorems, formulas, diagrams, worked examples, and links to further reading. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://mathworld.wolfram.com **Tags:** mathematics-reference, encyclopedia, abstract-algebra, number-theory, geometry ### 4. seeing-theory.brown.edu Seeing Theory is an interactive, browser-based resource from Brown University that uses visual simulations to explain fundamental probability and statistics concepts. It offers interactive demos and explanations on topics like probability, distributions, sampling, the central limit theorem, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and Bayesian reasoning. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://seeing-theory.brown.edu **Tags:** websites, technology-computer-science, data-science--ai ### 5. desmos.com Desmos is a free online graphing calculator and math exploration platform that lets you plot functions and visualize Calculus concepts like derivatives and integrals. It also provides interactive activities and classroom resources to support learning and teaching. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://desmos.com **Tags:** websites, mathematics-statistics, mathematics ## Courses ### 1. Statistics Learn statistics fundamentals with this free course from Khan Academy! Master probability, data analysis, and more. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.khanacademy.org/math/statistics-probability **Tags:** introductory-statistics, probability, data-analysis, hypothesis-testing ### 2. Statistics with R University of Colorado Boulder course, taught by Charlie Nuttelman, that uses R and RStudio for applied statistics. Covers descriptive statistics, probability distributions, confidence intervals, one- and two-sample hypothesis tests, regression and ANOVA, so learners can run and interpret standard analyses in R. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/statistics-and-data-analysis-with-r **Tags:** courses, science-research, scientific-method ### 3. Introduction to Statistics Stanford's "Introduction to Statistics" teaches you statistical thinking concepts that are essential for learning from data and communicating insights. By the end of the course, you will be able to perform exploratory data analysis, understand key principles of sampling, and select appropriate tests of significance for multiple contexts. You will gain the foundational skills that prepare you to pursue more advanced topics in statistical thinking and machine learning. Topics include Descriptive Statistics, Sampling and Randomized Controlled Experiments, Probability, Sampling Distributions and the Central Limit Theorem, Regression, Common Tests of Significance, Resampling, Multiple Comparisons. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Duration:** This course will take approx. 6-8 hours to complete, depending on prior knowledge and experience. | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/stanford-statistics **Tags:** courses, mathematics-statistics, statistics-and-probability ## Podcasts ### 1. Stats + Stories **Author:** The Stats + Stories Team Statistics need Stories to give them meaning. Stories need Statistics to give them credibility. Every Thursday John Bailer & Rosemary Pennington get together with a new, interesting guest to bring you the Statistics behind the Stories and the Stories behind the Statistics. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://statsandstories.net **Tags:** statistics, statistical-literacy, data-journalism, podcast ## Books ### 1. Head First Statistics **Author:** Dawn Griffiths An illustrated O'Reilly introduction covering probability, distributions, correlation, and hypothesis testing through puzzles and worked scenarios. Readers finish able to summarize data with means and spread, compute probabilities, and run basic significance tests by hand. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0596527586?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, technology-computer-science, statistics-data-science ### 2. Introductory Statistics **Author:** Neil A. Weiss, Matthew J. Hassett A college textbook working through data description, probability, sampling distributions, estimation, and hypothesis testing with step-by-step procedures and Minitab examples. Covers the standard one-semester sequence, so readers can construct confidence intervals and interpret significance tests. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0201178338?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, mathematics-statistics, statistics-and-probability ### 3. The Art of Statistics **Author:** David Spiegelhalter Spiegelhalter uses real investigations, from surgical mortality to the Harold Shipman case, to explain how data becomes evidence. Readers come away understanding sampling, regression, uncertainty, and why statistical claims reported in the news so often mislead. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0241398630?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, mathematics-statistics, statistics-and-probability --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/descriptive-statistics