Análise multivariada: da teoria à prática

Abstract

Much of the information broadcast by the means of communication nonbdays comes from statistical researches. Inflation index, employment and unemployment, rates published and analyzed by the media, are examples of daily statistical applications. Statistical concepts have exert ed deep influences in most branches of human being knowledge. Statistical methods have been used to refine agricultural products, to develop special equipment, to traffic control, to forecast epidemic, outbreaks as well as to get better management processes, in the governmental area as much as in private negotiations. The growing employment of statistical techniques, mainly multivariate techniques, have become as necessary as the complexity of problems that have arisen in our daily life. In practice, multivariate analysis can be employed in many branches of science, like medicine, psychology, animal science, biological science and others. Due to this importance, the main purpose of this research was to develop a theoretical practical study about cluster analysis, principal component analysis and factorial analysis. Jointly with these, operational procedures were shown in order to apply these techniques with and without computers. Statistics software was used to explain the procedures step by step. The discussion and procedures presented in this study will be useful to give support to researchers who use these techniques in their area of knowledge helping them with better formulation and solutions for the application.