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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: ¯ = =.
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. In complex studies ...
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".
If the sampling distribution is normally distributed, the sample mean, the standard error, and the quantiles of the normal distribution can be used to calculate confidence intervals for the true population mean.
Based on this sample, the estimated population mean is 10, and the unbiased estimate of population variance is 30. Both the naïve algorithm and two-pass algorithm compute these values correctly. Next consider the sample ( 10 8 + 4 , 10 8 + 7 , 10 8 + 13 , 10 8 + 16 ), which gives rise to the same estimated variance as the first sample.
Firstly, if the true population mean is unknown, then the sample variance (which uses the sample mean in place of the true mean) is a biased estimator: it underestimates the variance by a factor of (n − 1) / n; correcting this factor, resulting in the sum of squared deviations about the sample mean divided by n-1 instead of n, is called ...
The sample mean, on the other hand, is an unbiased [5] estimator of the population mean μ. [3] Note that the usual definition of sample variance is = = (¯), and this is an unbiased estimator of the population variance.
In statistics, an estimator is a rule for calculating an estimate of a given quantity based on observed data: thus the rule (the estimator), the quantity of interest (the estimand) and its result (the estimate) are distinguished. [1] For example, the sample mean is a commonly used estimator of the population mean. There are point and interval ...