Mixing
sample vs population data
$begingroup$
I am having trouble figuring out if a situation is dealing with a sample or population.
Let's say you have subset of a physics class on 'age' and given a bunch of data measurements (ie. age numbers).
The term subset means a part of a larger group. Since you are only taking a sample of larger group and only interested in that sample, does that mean I am to find the "population" mean, median, mode etc?
However, I am also thinking that because I am only working with age for this class, there's no reason for me to generalize the results for all classes. I also have all the data that pertains to my investigation. Therefore it's population.
Are there keywords to figure out if my situation is sample or population?
Let's say I am observing a "random sample" of something, would I be observing a sample?
statistics
asked Jan 25 at 2:30
mathrookie3mathrookie3
84
$endgroup$
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I am having trouble figuring out if a situation is dealing with a sample or population.
Let's say you have subset of a physics class on 'age' and given a bunch of data measurements (ie. age numbers).
The term subset means a part of a larger group. Since you are only taking a sample of larger group and only interested in that sample, does that mean I am to find the "population" mean, median, mode etc?
However, I am also thinking that because I am only working with age for this class, there's no reason for me to generalize the results for all classes. I also have all the data that pertains to my investigation. Therefore it's population.
Are there keywords to figure out if my situation is sample or population?
Let's say I am observing a "random sample" of something, would I be observing a sample?
statistics
asked Jan 25 at 2:30
mathrookie3mathrookie3
84
$endgroup$
$begingroup$
You can't find Population mean but you can estimate it.(It will contain some error). Look for confidence interval definition for further information. If the sample contains noise then it will provide no information.
$endgroup$
– Khan Saab
Jan 25 at 2:33
$begingroup$
The big question about sample vs population is the question of what you are trying to predict values of. Are you trying to extrapolate your predictions to a larger set (e.g. by using data about students from only ten schools to try to predict data about any student from any of the hundreds of schools in a state)? Or are you content with only predicting things about the set itself and not extending or extrapolating this to other things (e.g. we have data about a specific school and we only care about that school alone).
$endgroup$
– JMoravitz
Jan 25 at 2:40
$begingroup$
The answer is determined by what you are asked to investigate. Are you concerned with the mean age for a particular class and are able to obtain the age of everyone in that class? If that is the case then you are dealing with population mean. However, if instead (and is probably more likely) that the population of interest is all physics students, and you only obtain data from one class, what you have is a sample and the mean you find is a sample mean
$endgroup$
– WaveX
Jan 25 at 2:40
add a comment |
$begingroup$
I am having trouble figuring out if a situation is dealing with a sample or population.
Let's say you have subset of a physics class on 'age' and given a bunch of data measurements (ie. age numbers).
The term subset means a part of a larger group. Since you are only taking a sample of larger group and only interested in that sample, does that mean I am to find the "population" mean, median, mode etc?
However, I am also thinking that because I am only working with age for this class, there's no reason for me to generalize the results for all classes. I also have all the data that pertains to my investigation. Therefore it's population.
Are there keywords to figure out if my situation is sample or population?
Let's say I am observing a "random sample" of something, would I be observing a sample?
statistics
asked Jan 25 at 2:30
mathrookie3mathrookie3
84
$endgroup$
I am having trouble figuring out if a situation is dealing with a sample or population.
Let's say you have subset of a physics class on 'age' and given a bunch of data measurements (ie. age numbers).
The term subset means a part of a larger group. Since you are only taking a sample of larger group and only interested in that sample, does that mean I am to find the "population" mean, median, mode etc?
However, I am also thinking that because I am only working with age for this class, there's no reason for me to generalize the results for all classes. I also have all the data that pertains to my investigation. Therefore it's population.
Are there keywords to figure out if my situation is sample or population?
Let's say I am observing a "random sample" of something, would I be observing a sample?
statistics
statistics
asked Jan 25 at 2:30
mathrookie3mathrookie3
84
asked Jan 25 at 2:30
mathrookie3mathrookie3
84
edited Jan 25 at 2:37
mathrookie3
asked Jan 25 at 2:30
mathrookie3mathrookie3
84
asked Jan 25 at 2:30
mathrookie3mathrookie3
84
asked Jan 25 at 2:30
mathrookie3mathrookie3
84
84
$begingroup$
You can't find Population mean but you can estimate it.(It will contain some error). Look for confidence interval definition for further information. If the sample contains noise then it will provide no information.
$endgroup$
– Khan Saab
Jan 25 at 2:33
$begingroup$
The big question about sample vs population is the question of what you are trying to predict values of. Are you trying to extrapolate your predictions to a larger set (e.g. by using data about students from only ten schools to try to predict data about any student from any of the hundreds of schools in a state)? Or are you content with only predicting things about the set itself and not extending or extrapolating this to other things (e.g. we have data about a specific school and we only care about that school alone).
$endgroup$
– JMoravitz
Jan 25 at 2:40
$begingroup$
The answer is determined by what you are asked to investigate. Are you concerned with the mean age for a particular class and are able to obtain the age of everyone in that class? If that is the case then you are dealing with population mean. However, if instead (and is probably more likely) that the population of interest is all physics students, and you only obtain data from one class, what you have is a sample and the mean you find is a sample mean
$endgroup$
– WaveX
Jan 25 at 2:40
add a comment |
$begingroup$
You can't find Population mean but you can estimate it.(It will contain some error). Look for confidence interval definition for further information. If the sample contains noise then it will provide no information.
$endgroup$
– Khan Saab
Jan 25 at 2:33
$begingroup$
The big question about sample vs population is the question of what you are trying to predict values of. Are you trying to extrapolate your predictions to a larger set (e.g. by using data about students from only ten schools to try to predict data about any student from any of the hundreds of schools in a state)? Or are you content with only predicting things about the set itself and not extending or extrapolating this to other things (e.g. we have data about a specific school and we only care about that school alone).
$endgroup$
– JMoravitz
Jan 25 at 2:40
$begingroup$
The answer is determined by what you are asked to investigate. Are you concerned with the mean age for a particular class and are able to obtain the age of everyone in that class? If that is the case then you are dealing with population mean. However, if instead (and is probably more likely) that the population of interest is all physics students, and you only obtain data from one class, what you have is a sample and the mean you find is a sample mean
$endgroup$
– WaveX
Jan 25 at 2:40
$begingroup$
You can't find Population mean but you can estimate it.(It will contain some error). Look for confidence interval definition for further information. If the sample contains noise then it will provide no information.
$endgroup$
– Khan Saab
Jan 25 at 2:33
$begingroup$
You can't find Population mean but you can estimate it.(It will contain some error). Look for confidence interval definition for further information. If the sample contains noise then it will provide no information.
$endgroup$
– Khan Saab
Jan 25 at 2:33
$begingroup$
The big question about sample vs population is the question of what you are trying to predict values of. Are you trying to extrapolate your predictions to a larger set (e.g. by using data about students from only ten schools to try to predict data about any student from any of the hundreds of schools in a state)? Or are you content with only predicting things about the set itself and not extending or extrapolating this to other things (e.g. we have data about a specific school and we only care about that school alone).
$endgroup$
– JMoravitz
Jan 25 at 2:40
$begingroup$
The big question about sample vs population is the question of what you are trying to predict values of. Are you trying to extrapolate your predictions to a larger set (e.g. by using data about students from only ten schools to try to predict data about any student from any of the hundreds of schools in a state)? Or are you content with only predicting things about the set itself and not extending or extrapolating this to other things (e.g. we have data about a specific school and we only care about that school alone).
$endgroup$
– JMoravitz
Jan 25 at 2:40
$begingroup$
The answer is determined by what you are asked to investigate. Are you concerned with the mean age for a particular class and are able to obtain the age of everyone in that class? If that is the case then you are dealing with population mean. However, if instead (and is probably more likely) that the population of interest is all physics students, and you only obtain data from one class, what you have is a sample and the mean you find is a sample mean
$endgroup$
– WaveX
Jan 25 at 2:40
$begingroup$
The answer is determined by what you are asked to investigate. Are you concerned with the mean age for a particular class and are able to obtain the age of everyone in that class? If that is the case then you are dealing with population mean. However, if instead (and is probably more likely) that the population of interest is all physics students, and you only obtain data from one class, what you have is a sample and the mean you find is a sample mean
$endgroup$
– WaveX
Jan 25 at 2:40
add a comment |
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$begingroup$
You can't find Population mean but you can estimate it.(It will contain some error). Look for confidence interval definition for further information. If the sample contains noise then it will provide no information.
$endgroup$
– Khan Saab
Jan 25 at 2:33
$begingroup$
The big question about sample vs population is the question of what you are trying to predict values of. Are you trying to extrapolate your predictions to a larger set (e.g. by using data about students from only ten schools to try to predict data about any student from any of the hundreds of schools in a state)? Or are you content with only predicting things about the set itself and not extending or extrapolating this to other things (e.g. we have data about a specific school and we only care about that school alone).
$endgroup$
– JMoravitz
Jan 25 at 2:40
$begingroup$
The answer is determined by what you are asked to investigate. Are you concerned with the mean age for a particular class and are able to obtain the age of everyone in that class? If that is the case then you are dealing with population mean. However, if instead (and is probably more likely) that the population of interest is all physics students, and you only obtain data from one class, what you have is a sample and the mean you find is a sample mean
$endgroup$
– WaveX
Jan 25 at 2:40