Estimating variance

Posted in Maths, Statistics 2

You can estimate the variance of a population from a sample of a population by using the following equation:

Dynamic image 0

This can also be written as:

Dynamic image 1

Where n the number in the sample and Dynamic image 2 is the sample mean.

Example

Estimate the variance of the test scores for pupils in a school based on the following sample:

Student A B C D
Results 90 89 77 56

First calculate the sample mean:

Dynamic image 3

Next calculate the sum of the scares of the values:

Student A B C D Sum
Results squared 8100 7921 5929 3136 25086

Next, plug in the values into the equation:

Dynamic image 4