17 Estimating Parameters and Testing Hypotheses

There are many times where we would like to know something about a large population (height of a group of people, weight of a manufactured item, or income levels), but the collection of the information from the entire population is too difficult, time consuming, risky, or expensive. In these cases we would like to estimate the properties of the variable for the entire population by studying a small sample of the population. In this chapter we will learn different techniques for selecting a sample, analyzing the variables of the sample, and drawing inferences from the information to the entire population.

Related Content Standards

• (7.SPA.1) Understand that statistics can be used to gain information about a population by examining a sample of the population; generalizations about a population from a sample are valid only if the sample is representative of that population. Understand that random sampling tends to produce representative samples and support valid inferences.
• (7.SPA.2) Use data from a random sample to draw inferences about a population with an unknown characteristic of interest. Generate multiple samples (or simulated samples) of the same size to gauge the variation in estimates or predictions.
• (HSS.IC.1) Understand statistics as a process for making inferences about population parameters based on a random sample from that population.