Estimating variance
Posted in Maths, Statistics 2You can estimate the variance of a population from a sample of a population by using the following equation:
This can also be written as:
Where n the number in the sample and 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:
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: