Introduction To Statistics
Introduction To Statistics
Introduction To Statistics
concerning a given population based on the data obtained from a sample. It focuses on estimation and
hypothesis testing.
stimationis the process used to calculate the proposedvalues for parameters by only using a random
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sample from the population.
Point estimaterefers to a single value that bestdetermines the proposed parameter value of the population.
Interval estimategives a range of values within whichthe parameter value possibly falls.
ample measures, such as sample mean, can be used to estimate population parameters, such as population
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mean. These sample measures are calledestimators.The following are the properties of a good estimator:
1. U
nbiasedness- any parameter can be considered a randomvariable since its value may change
depending on the selection of the members of the sample.
2. C
onsistency- the standard deviation of the samplestatistics taken from the population is also called
thestandard error. Thus, the standard deviation ofan estimate is the standard error of that estimate, it
then gives the possible amount of error of estimating a population parameter.Consistencyof an
estimator is achieved when the estimate produced a relatively smaller standard error.
3. E
fficiency- from all the unbiased estimators of thepopulation parameter, the efficient estimator is the
one that gives the smallest variance.
ormally speaking, if X1, X2, X3… Xndenotes the randomvariables from a random sample, then the function
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U( X1, X2, X3… Xn) used to estimate the populationparameter θ is calledpoint estimator.
sample statistic contains all the information the sample provides. However, it is sometimes insufficient to
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estimate the value of the population parameter using only a single point estimator. Thus,a< μ <b, whereaand
bare the endpoints of the interval between whichthe population mean lies. This is the process ofinterval
estimation.
he interval of values that predicts where the true population parameter belongs is calledinterval estimate,or
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most commonly known as theconfidence interval.
he degree of certainty that the true population parameter falls within the constructed confidence interval is
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referred to as theconfidence level. Which correspondto the probabilities (or percentages of area) associated
with the normal curve.
ore often, it is the sample standard deviation that is known since it can easily be computed using the
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observation from the selected sample. It is in these cases that another test statistic must be used. This is called
thet- random variable test statistic.
In the case of limited samples or a number of samples less than 30 taken from a randomly distributed
population, it is wise to use thet- distribution.
illiam S. Gossetwas an English statistician whodeveloped thet-distribution, which is used insteadof the
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z-distribution for doing inferential statistics onthe population mean when the population standard deviation is
unknown and the population is normally distributed.
ifferent sample sizes have different distributions, thereby creating manyt- tables and makingt- distributiona
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series of different distributions determined by its degree of freedom.
hedegree of freedom(d
T f) is simply a measure ofhow many values can vary in a sample statistic. Whereindf
= n - 1.