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The confidence interval can be expressed in terms of probability with respect to a single theoretical (yet to be realized) sample: "There is a 95% probability that the 95% confidence interval calculated from a given future sample will cover the true value of the population parameter."
Sample sizes may be evaluated by the quality of the resulting estimates, as follows. It is usually determined on the basis of the cost, time or convenience of data collection and the need for sufficient statistical power. For example, if a proportion is being estimated, one may wish to have the 95% confidence interval be
In the social sciences, a result may be considered statistically significant if its confidence level is of the order of a two-sigma effect (95%), while in particle physics and astrophysics, there is a convention of requiring statistical significance of a five-sigma effect (99.99994% confidence) to qualify as a discovery. [3]
Classically, a confidence distribution is defined by inverting the upper limits of a series of lower-sided confidence intervals. [15] [16] [page needed] In particular, For every α in (0, 1), let (−∞, ξ n (α)] be a 100α% lower-side confidence interval for θ, where ξ n (α) = ξ n (X n,α) is continuous and increasing in α for each sample X n.
In contrast, it is worth noting that other confidence interval may have coverage levels that are lower than the nominal , i.e., the normal approximation (or "standard") interval, Wilson interval, [8] Agresti–Coull interval, [13] etc., with a nominal coverage of 95% may in fact cover less than 95%, [4] even for large sample sizes.
For a confidence level, there is a corresponding confidence interval about the mean , that is, the interval [, +] within which values of should fall with probability . Precise values of z γ {\displaystyle z_{\gamma }} are given by the quantile function of the normal distribution (which the 68–95–99.7 rule approximates).
Comparison of the rule of three to the exact binomial one-sided confidence interval with no positive samples. In statistical analysis, the rule of three states that if a certain event did not occur in a sample with n subjects, the interval from 0 to 3/ n is a 95% confidence interval for the rate of occurrences in the population.
To calculate these confidence intervals, all that is required is an independently and identically distributed (iid) sample from the distribution and known bounds on the support of the distribution. The latter requirement simply means that all the nonzero probability mass of the distribution must be contained in some known interval [ a , b ...