In this exercise, we will introduce the notion of a distribution of quantities. We will approach this with the use of histograms, and then with formulae that give similar information. Distributions have many uses in science and statistics. They are widely used in astronomy. How Distributions Arise The first step in the idealized scientific method is to gather data.
Data are the outcome of experiments, or observations.
In science, we try to collect quantitative data from measurements. From such measurements, theories may result, which explain why or how the particular values that we may have measured came about. This information was available, at one time, on the web, posted by student number. Clearly the most precise description of those scores would be the individual numbers themselves. But for many purposes, we might seek a simpler description.