Difference between statistics and stochastic? Can somebody explain me the difference between statistics and stochastic? I know that stochastic calculates probabilities but isn't statistics the same?
 A: "Statistics" is essentially the opposite of "probability".  In "probability" we have some given probability distribution and want to determine the probability of some specific event.  In "statistics" we are given the probability of a number of events and want to determine the probability distribution.
"Stochastic", on the other hand, is an adjective while both "probability" and "statistics" are nouns, denoting fields of study.  To say that a process is "stochastic" is to say that at least part of it happens "randomly"- so can be studied using probability and/or statistics.
A: Basically, the basic distinction is that stochastic (process) is what (we assume) generates the data that statistics analyze. For instance, if you toss a coin $100$ times the result is a one possible outcome out of $2^{100}$ possible sequences. This process that generates the sequence is stochastic (coin flipping). However, once you got the sequence of $H$s and $T$s you can use statistics in order to determine if the coin was a fair coin. 
