Some Internet exploring told me that the average school-age child (that's most of us!) spends 3 to 4 hours a day in front of the TV. That's a lot of messages getting drilled into a lot of learning brains. When we see percentages, surveys, and polls, it's easy to jump to conclusions. You already know to take media with a grain of salt, as they say, but just how much salt should we take?
You've probably heard some of the following statistical terms, but maybe you don't know exactly what they mean or how to use them. The people a survey is supposed to make observations about are called the population. The people who actually give the responses shown in the data are called the sample population. If you want to know if your French class wants chocolate cake next vendredi, rather than asking each and every student, you might just ask the students in the front row. The front row would be your sample, while your whole class would be your population.
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