J. A. Ines/Chemistry 26.
1 (2018) P a g e |1
Application of Statistical Concepts in the Determination of Weight Variation
in Samples
J. A. Ines1
1National
Institute of Geological Sciences, College of Science, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City 1101
Performed: January 24, 2018 Submitted: June 31, 2018
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
1. Give the significance of Grubbs’ Test.
Grubbs’ Test is utilized to determine a single
outlier in a set of data. The test is applied to the
maximum and minimum values of a data set and
only one or none of them will be rejected
depending on their Gexperimental value and the
confidence level set. [if Gexperimental > Gtabulated, then
rejected otherwise, accepted]. It is significant
especially for the statistical measures that are
sensitive to outliers such as the mean and
standard deviation. Presence of outliers may
result to false statistics and Grubbs’ Test tries to
eliminate erroneous data in order to obtain
accurate measurements.
2. Give the significance of the mean and
standard deviation.
The mean is a single number that represents
and accounts all of the elements in a data set
and is obtained by taking the average of
elements of the data set. It is significant since
the true value of any physical quantity can never
be known and by computing for the mean of
different set of samples or trials, we can get the
“most probable value” of that physical quantity.
The standard deviation is used to measure how
far the data are from the mean of the data set.
The smaller the value of standard deviation, the
closer the data points from the mean. It is
significant since it gives us an idea on how
precise the elements of a data set are with
reference to the mean.
3. Give the significance of the confidence
interval.
It is impossible to determine the exact value of
the mean of a population since the number of
elements of a population is huge that it tends to
approach infinity. Confidence interval gives us
an interval in which the exact or true mean may
lie around the experimentally computed mean.
Confidence interval gives the precision and
uncertainty of the estimated location of the true
mean.
4. How do the statistics calculated from data
set 1 differ from those obtained from data
set 2?
The statistics of the two data sets differs since
they have different number of samples.
Data Set 2 has 10 samples thus, representing the
population more accurately than Data Set 1
which has 6 samples. The measures of central
tendency of Data Set 2 is more reliable than of
Data Set 1 since the accuracy of central tendency
increases as the number of trials or samples
increases. On the other hand, Data Set 1 is more
precise than Data Set 2 as Data Set 1 has a much
lower standard deviation and range than Data
Set 2.
REFERENCES:
1. Ymas, S. E., Jr., Najjar, C. T., Altares, P. S., &
Concepcion, B. P., Jr. (2007). College Statistics.
Valenzuela City, Philippines: Ymas Publishing
House.
2. Skoog, D. A., Holler, F. J., & Crouch, S. R.
(2014). Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry.
Andover: Cengage Learning.
3. Ghilani, C. D., & Wolf, P. R. (2012). Elementary
Surveying . Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Pearson Education, Inc.
4. Rumsey, D. J. (n.d.). Why Standard Deviation
Is an Important Statistic. Retrieved January 27,
2018,fromhttp://www.dummies.com/education
/math/statistics/why-standard-deviation-is-an-
important-statistic/
5. NIST/SEMATECH. (2003, June 1). Grubbs'
Test for Outliers. Retrieved January 27, 2018,
from http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook
/eda/section3/eda35h1.htm
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