Exploratory Data Analysis - History

History

Many EDA ideas can be traced back to earlier authors, for example:

  • Francis Galton emphasized order statistics and quantiles.
  • Arthur Lyon Bowley used precursors of the stemplot and five-number summary (Bowley actually used a "seven-figure summary", including the extremes, deciles and quartiles, along with the median - see his Elementary Manual of Statistics (3rd edn., 1920), p. 62 – he defines "the maximum and minimum, median, quartiles and two deciles" as the "seven positions").
  • Andrew Ehrenberg articulated a philosophy of data reduction (see his book of the same name).

The Open University course Statistics in Society (MDST 242), took the above ideas and merged them with Gottfried Noether's work, which introduced statistical inference via coin-tossing and the median test.

Read more about this topic:  Exploratory Data Analysis

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.
    José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)

    “And now this is the way in which the history of your former life has reached my ears!” As he said this he held out in his hand the fatal letter.
    Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)

    We aspire to be something more than stupid and timid chattels, pretending to read history and our Bibles, but desecrating every house and every day we breathe in.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)