Lesson plan
Sampling error
In statistics, sampling errors are incurred when the statistical characteristics of a population are estimated from a subset, or sample, of that population. Since the sample does not include all members of the population, statistics of the sample (often known as estimators), such as means and quartiles, generally differ from the statistics of the entire population (known as parameters). The difference between the sample statistic and population parameter is called the sampling error. For example, if one measures the height of a thousand individuals from a population of one million, the average height of the thousand is typically not the same as the average height of all one million people in the country. Since sampling is almost always done to estimate population parameters that are unknown, by definition exact measurement of the sampling errors will usually not be possible; however they can often be estimated, either by general methods such as bootstrapping, or by specific methods incorporating some assumptions (or guesses) regarding the true population distribution and parameters thereof.
Article summary
In statistics, sampling errors are incurred when the statistical characteristics of a population are estimated from a subset, or sample, of that population. Since the sample does not include all members of the population, statistics of the sample (often known as estimators), such as means and quartiles, generally differ from the statistics of the entire population (known as parameters). The difference between the sample statistic and population parameter is called the sampling error. For example, if one measures the height of a thousand individuals from a population of one million, the average height of the thousand is typically not the same as the average height of all one million people in the country. Since sampling is almost always done to estimate population parameters that are unknown, by definition exact measurement of the sampling errors will usually not be possible; however they can often be estimated, either by general methods such as bootstrapping, or by specific methods incorporating some assumptions (or guesses) regarding the true population distribution and parameters thereof.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.