In Civil War History (June 2009), historian Jane Flaherty researched the condition of the U. S. Treasury on the eve of the Civil War in 1861. Between 1854 and 1857 (under President Franklin Pierce), the annual surplus/deficit was plus 18.8, plus 6.7, plus 5.3, and plus1.3 million dollars, respectively. In contrast, between 1858 and 1861 (under President James Buchanan), the annual surplus/deficit was minus 27.3, minus 16.2, minus 7.2, and minus25.2 million dollars, respectively. Flaherty used these data to aid in portraying the exhausted condition of the U. S. Treasury when Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861. Does this study represent a descriptive or inferential statistical study? Explain.

Question

Dana Oneal

Mathematics

25 February, 15:27

In Civil War History (June 2009), historian Jane Flaherty researched the condition of the U. S. Treasury on the eve of the Civil War in 1861. Between 1854 and 1857 (under President Franklin Pierce), the annual surplus/deficit was plus 18.8, plus 6.7, plus 5.3, and plus1.3 million dollars, respectively. In contrast, between 1858 and 1861 (under President James Buchanan), the annual surplus/deficit was minus 27.3, minus 16.2, minus 7.2, and minus25.2 million dollars, respectively. Flaherty used these data to aid in portraying the exhausted condition of the U. S. Treasury when Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861. Does this study represent a descriptive or inferential statistical study? Explain.

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Cecelia Gonzales · Answer 1

Statistics are divided into two main branches: the descriptive one that, as the name implies, seeks to describe the data through mathematical processes that allow them to be analyzed, find numerical patterns, representative data, group values and summarize the information; the other branch is the inferential, which seeks to make estimates or predictions, inferences, on a set of data obtained, usually samples, making use of probabilities and distributions.

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The study described is a descriptive study since it performs a series of mathematical processes on a set of data to be able to analyze them, find representative patterns and data, describe their behavior and make a comparison.