Article View: sci.math.stat
Article #631margin of error
From: Kris Popat
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1992 17:53
Date: Sat, 03 Oct 1992 17:53
14 lines
973 bytes
973 bytes
Consider the statement,
"The margin of error for this poll was +/- 3 percent."
I'd like to know what such a statement means in precise terms. The
Chebyshev inequality allows us to make statements like, "the
probability that the measured value differs from the "true" value by
more than D, is less than P." So does the "margin of error" here
correspond to D? If so, what is the corresponding value of P? Are we
supposed to assume it is some standard value, like 0.95?
Kris Popat
MIT Rm. E15-391 Cambridge, MA 02139
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<POPAT.92Oct3125308@image.mit.edu>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!noc.near.net!hri.com!spool.mu.edu!wupost!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!popatShow Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!noc.near.net!hri.com!spool.mu.edu!wupost!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!popat From: popat@image.mit.edu (Kris Popat) Newsgroups: sci.math.stat Subject: margin of error Message-ID: <POPAT.92Oct3125308@image.mit.edu> Date: 3 Oct 92 17:53:08 GMT Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: MIT Advanced Television Research Program Lines: 14