samples
The girls in the picture above make up a small samplethere are only four of them. In scientific investigations, samples may include hundreds or even thousands of people or other objects of study. Especially when samples are very large, its important to be able to summarize their overall characteristics with a few numbers. Thats where descriptive statistics come in. Descriptive statistics are measures that show the central tendency, or center, of a sample or the variation in a sample.