Understanding statistical estimators
When we were looking at various example probability distributions, we learned how to calculate their mean and variance. Now, you may ask: Is it possible to calculate the mean and variance of a sample (of a dataset)? The answer is yes. You have probably done this before in high school or college. So, you may be wondering how the mean and variance of a dataset are connected to the mean and variance of a population distribution. What we are going to do now is explain the following:
- How to calculate the mean and variance of a sample
- How they differ from the mean and variance of the population distribution from which the sample was generated
- How they are connected to the mean and variance of the population distribution from which the sample was generated
- How to use our understanding of the population distribution to make quantified inferences about it from the sample
Let’s start with the first of those. Given a set of...
