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The sample size is an important feature of any empirical study in which the goal is to make inferences about a population from a sample. In practice, the sample size used in a study is usually determined based on the cost, time, or convenience of collecting the data, and the need for it to offer sufficient statistical power .
The sample mean is the average of the values of a variable in a sample, which is the sum of those values divided by the number of values. Using mathematical notation, if a sample of N observations on variable X is taken from the population, the sample mean is: ¯ = =.
For example, consider a normal population with mean and variance . Assume we repeatedly take samples of a given size from this population and calculate the arithmetic mean ¯ for each sample – this statistic is called the sample mean. The distribution of these means, or averages, is called the "sampling distribution of the sample mean".
For example, let the design effect, for estimating the population mean based on some sampling design, be 2. If the sample size is 1,000, then the effective sample size will be 500. It means that the variance of the weighted mean based on 1,000 samples will be the same as that of a simple mean based on 500 samples obtained using a simple random ...
For example, the population mean height is equal to the sum of the heights of every individual—divided by the total number of individuals. The sample mean may differ from the population mean, especially for small samples. The law of large numbers states that the larger the size of the sample, the more likely it is that the sample mean will be ...
In estimating the population variance from a sample when the population mean is unknown, the uncorrected sample variance is the mean of the squares of deviations of sample values from the sample mean (i.e., using a multiplicative factor 1/n).
It can be used in calculating the sample size for a future study. When measuring differences between proportions, Cohen's h can be used in conjunction with hypothesis testing . A " statistically significant " difference between two proportions is understood to mean that, given the data, it is likely that there is a difference in the population ...
In general, with a normally-distributed sample mean, Ẋ, and with a known value for the standard deviation, σ, a 100(1-α)% confidence interval for the true μ is formed by taking Ẋ ± e, with e = z 1-α/2 (σ/n 1/2), where z 1-α/2 is the 100(1-α/2)% cumulative value of the standard normal curve, and n is the number of data values in that ...