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Article #367

Fwd: Standard Deviation.

#367
From: Daniel Read
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 22:11
19 lines
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---------- Forwarded message begins here ----------

Can someone explain why calculating the Standard Deviation (SD),
for small samples, with (n-1) in the denominator is better than
doing so with (n) in the denominator?  I'm sure that there's
a perfectly good reason for doing so.  But we, lowly engineers
aren't usually told the reason.  Thanks now, for your response later.;-)

RESPONSE (and my own query):

The variance increases as a function of sample size.  That is, a small
sample will systematically underestimate the population variance (if we
estimate the population variance with denominator N-1).  Using this
reduced denominator therefore has the effect of increasing the variance
estimate.

My question:  why does a small sample underestimate the population variance?  

daniel read
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From: dr3u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Daniel Read)
Newsgroups: sci.math.stat
Subject: Fwd: Standard Deviation.
Message-ID: <seX2yRq00Uh785H2EB@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 14 Aug 92 22:11:41 GMT
References: <1992Aug14.172833.11844@cbfsb.cb.att.com>
Organization: Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
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