Article View: sci.math.stat
Article #367Fwd: Standard Deviation.
From: Daniel Read
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 22:11
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 22:11
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1309 bytes
---------- 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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arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!dtix!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!dr3u+References:
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!dtix!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!dr3u+ 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 Lines: 19