Final answer:
Descriptive and inferential statistics are fundamental in scientific investigations, with descriptive statistics summarizing data trends and inferential statistics aiding in hypothesis testing and generalizing from samples to populations.
Explanation:
Inferential statistics help interpret data to test hypotheses by determining the likelihood of the observed results occurring by chance. They are crucial in generalizing from a sample to a population and include methods like hypothesis testing, t-tests, and more.
Descriptive statistics, on the other hand, are used to summarize trends in data, such as measures of center and spread. They provide a numerical representation of the characteristics of collected data without generalizing beyond the sample.
Both types of statistics play essential roles in scientific investigations, with inferential statistics focusing on drawing conclusions about populations based on samples and descriptive statistics summarizing and describing the data at hand.
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