Sampling Theory and Some Important Sampling Distributions

9.1 Introduction to Sampling Distributions population – the set of all possible measurements (group of interest) sample – a subset of the population parameter – a numerical characteristic of a population statistic – a numerical characteristic of a sample Since the population is often not available, we use statistics to estimate parameters

In statistical application, we take a random sample from the population. We compute a statistic, say. The value of the statistic depends on which items are selected for the sample. Different samples yield different values of. Therefore, is a random variable. estimates the population mean

The distance between a statistic and the parameter it is estimating is called the sampling error. In order to evaluate the reliability of, we need to know the probability distribution of. The probability of a statistic over all possible samples is known as its sampling distribution. We want the sampling distribution to be centered at the value of the parameter and to have little variation.

The statistic is an unbiased estimator if it is centered about the parameter of interest. Otherwise, the estimator has bias. A statistic is a minimum variance unbiased estimator if it is an unbiased estimator and has less variance than all other unbiased estimators.

9.2 Sampling Distribution of the Sample Mean Facts about the sampling distribution of

The standard error of an estimate is the standard deviation of its sampling distribution is the standard error of Notice that as increases the sample to sample variability in decreases. Notice that as decreases so does.

9.3 The Central Limit Theorem If our sample comes from a normal distribution with mean and standard deviation then: has a standard normal distribution Central Limit Theorem If we sample from a population with mean and standard deviation then: is approximately standard normal for large.

If or larger, the central limit theorem will apply in almost all cases Example A population of soft drink cans has amounts of liquid following a normal distribution with and What is the probability that a single can is between 11.9 and 12.1 oz.? What is the probability that is between 11.9 and 12.1 for n = 16 cans?

Example A population of trees have heights that have a mean of 110 feet and a standard deviation of 20 feet. A sample of 100 trees is selected Find What about ?

9.5 Sampling Distribution of the Sample Proportion Population Proportion Sample Proportion is a point estimate of p

If we sample from a population with a proportion of p, then is approximately standard normal for large n.