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In mathematical analysis, the maximum and minimum [a] of a function are, respectively, the greatest and least value taken by the function. Known generically as extremum , [ b ] they may be defined either within a given range (the local or relative extrema) or on the entire domain (the global or absolute extrema) of a function.
The sample range is the difference between the maximum and minimum. It is a function of the order statistics: {, …,} = (). A similar important statistic in exploratory data analysis that is simply related to the order statistics is the sample interquartile range.
For a sample set, the maximum function is non-smooth and thus non-differentiable. For optimization problems that occur in statistics it often needs to be approximated by a smooth function that is close to the maximum of the set. A smooth maximum, for example, g(x 1, x 2, …, x n) = log( exp(x 1) + exp(x 2) + … + exp(x n) )
In statistics, maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is a method of estimating the parameters of an assumed probability distribution, given some observed data. This is achieved by maximizing a likelihood function so that, under the assumed statistical model , the observed data is most probable.
For maximum likelihood estimation, the existence of a global maximum of the likelihood function is of the utmost importance. By the extreme value theorem, it suffices that the likelihood function is continuous on a compact parameter space for the maximum likelihood estimator to exist. [7]
In statistics, the mode is the value that appears most often in a set of data values. [1] If X is a discrete random variable, the mode is the value x at which the probability mass function takes its maximum value (i.e., x=argmax x i P(X = x i)). In other words, it is the value that is most likely to be sampled.
However, the general definitions remain valid in the more abstract setting of order theory where arbitrary partially ordered sets are considered. The concepts of infimum and supremum are close to minimum and maximum, but are more useful in analysis because they better characterize special sets which may have no minimum or maximum.
In descriptive statistics, the range of a set of data is size of the narrowest interval which contains all the data. It is calculated as the difference between the largest and smallest values (also known as the sample maximum and minimum). [1] It is expressed in the same units as the data. The range provides an indication of statistical ...