Question

Technology ((i.e., TI Calculator, free web applets, Excel) plays an important role in statistics; it can be used to calculate formulas, perform tests, or display data. Please discuss how you use technology in this course and share any other resources that you find helpful.

Answer 1

Moore’s Law is the observation that the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years. This aspect of technological progress is important as the capabilities of many digital electronic devices are strongly linked to Moore’s Law. Technology has shaped the global processes all over the world. Technology has revolutionised society and it has revolutionised the way in which statistics, as a professional discipline, is done. The collection of data is growing exponentially both in relation to the quantity of data assembled on any particular measure and also in relation to the range of topics, and the measures, on which data is collected. Accessing data has become much simpler, and tools for exploring, manipulating and representing that data visually have multiplied, both in commercially available software and open-source freeware.

For example the basic statistical computation can be done with the help of a TI calculator. Now for large sample sizes we use spreadsheets or various programming langiages. For example if we have a sample dataset of 1000 or perhaps 10000, it won't be possible with the help of TI caluclator. However, in spreadsheets with the help of Analysis function we can perform multiple functions like regressions, descriptive statistics, anova analysis, etc. However if the data size increases to 1 million rows like in statisitical surveys then there are redundancy issues in MS Excel. Then we use R or Python to perform explolatory data analysis.