Skip to main content
added 131 characters in body
Source Link
BruceET
  • 57.6k
  • 2
  • 36
  • 95

Suppose we have data as shown in the histogram below. (Of course there are no ages below $0,$ but I wanted the histogram bars to be of equal widths.)

enter image description here

Suppose we make the simplifying approximation that all ages in each of the $k = 4$ histogram bins are at the centers of their intervals. Then we get frequencies $3, 41, 51, 5$ (for $n = 100$ subjects altogether) 'located' at midpoints $7, 25, 45, 65.$

Then the sample mean can be estimated as $$\bar X \approx \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i = 1}^k f_im_i = 36.66.$$

The average was computed, using R statistical software as a calculator, as follows:

f = c(3, 41, 51, 5)
m = c(7, 25, 45, 65)
a = sum(f*m)/100;  a
[1] 36.66

Perhaps somewhat less accurately, we can approximate the sample variance as follows:

$$S^2 \approx \frac{1}{n-1}\sum_{i=1}^k f_i(m_i - \bar X)^2 = 159.358.$$

v = sum(f*(m-a)^2)/99;  v
[1] 159.358

Unless you have the original data, you can't know how accurately $\bar X$ and $S^2$ are actually estimated by these formulas. However, I simulated the heights in R, so we can check the true values. For my simulated data the approximate values happen to be quite accurate. [I suspect results in this example turned out to be a little better than usual--especially because we used only four intervals.]

set.seed(2020)  # for reproducibility
x = round(rnorm(100, 35, 10))
summary(x)
   Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
   5.00   29.00   36.00   36.09   42.25   67.00 
var(x)
[1] 124.4666

Note: (1) Some years ago when computation was more tedious than it is with modern software, it was common practice to use the formulas shown here to approximate $\bar X$ and $S^2$ for large samples. Results are usually pretty good if you use a dozen or so intervals.

(2) Some elementary statistics books (especially high-school AP statistics books) have formulas for estimating sample medians, other sample quantiles, estimating population modes from data summarized in the form of intervals and frequencies.

(3) See this related Q&A.

Suppose we have data as shown in the histogram below. (Of course there are no ages below $0,$ but I wanted the histogram bars to be of equal widths.)

enter image description here

Suppose we make the simplifying approximation that all ages in each of the $k = 4$ histogram bins are at the centers of their intervals. Then we get frequencies $3, 41, 51, 5$ (for $n = 100$ subjects altogether) 'located' at midpoints $7, 25, 45, 65.$

Then the sample mean can be estimated as $$\bar X \approx \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i = 1}^k f_im_i = 36.66.$$

The average was computed, using R statistical software as a calculator, as follows:

f = c(3, 41, 51, 5)
m = c(7, 25, 45, 65)
a = sum(f*m)/100;  a
[1] 36.66

Perhaps somewhat less accurately, we can approximate the sample variance as follows:

$$S^2 \approx \frac{1}{n-1}\sum_{i=1}^k f_i(m_i - \bar X)^2 = 159.358.$$

v = sum(f*(m-a)^2)/99;  v
[1] 159.358

Unless you have the original data, you can't know how accurately $\bar X$ and $S^2$ are actually estimated by these formulas. However, I simulated the heights in R, so we can check the true values. For my simulated data the approximate values happen to be quite accurate. [I suspect results in this example turned out to be a little better than usual--especially because we used only four intervals.]

set.seed(2020)  # for reproducibility
x = round(rnorm(100, 35, 10))
summary(x)
   Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
   5.00   29.00   36.00   36.09   42.25   67.00 
var(x)
[1] 124.4666

Note: (1) Some years ago when computation was more tedious than it is with modern software, it was common practice to use the formulas shown here to approximate $\bar X$ and $S^2$ for large samples. Results are usually pretty good if you use a dozen or so intervals.

(2) Some elementary statistics books (especially high-school AP statistics books) have formulas for estimating sample medians, other sample quantiles, estimating population modes from data summarized in the form of intervals and frequencies.

Suppose we have data as shown in the histogram below. (Of course there are no ages below $0,$ but I wanted the histogram bars to be of equal widths.)

enter image description here

Suppose we make the simplifying approximation that all ages in each of the $k = 4$ histogram bins are at the centers of their intervals. Then we get frequencies $3, 41, 51, 5$ (for $n = 100$ subjects altogether) 'located' at midpoints $7, 25, 45, 65.$

Then the sample mean can be estimated as $$\bar X \approx \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i = 1}^k f_im_i = 36.66.$$

The average was computed, using R statistical software as a calculator, as follows:

f = c(3, 41, 51, 5)
m = c(7, 25, 45, 65)
a = sum(f*m)/100;  a
[1] 36.66

Perhaps somewhat less accurately, we can approximate the sample variance as follows:

$$S^2 \approx \frac{1}{n-1}\sum_{i=1}^k f_i(m_i - \bar X)^2 = 159.358.$$

v = sum(f*(m-a)^2)/99;  v
[1] 159.358

Unless you have the original data, you can't know how accurately $\bar X$ and $S^2$ are actually estimated by these formulas. However, I simulated the heights in R, so we can check the true values. For my simulated data the approximate values happen to be quite accurate. [I suspect results in this example turned out to be a little better than usual--especially because we used only four intervals.]

set.seed(2020)  # for reproducibility
x = round(rnorm(100, 35, 10))
summary(x)
   Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
   5.00   29.00   36.00   36.09   42.25   67.00 
var(x)
[1] 124.4666

Note: (1) Some years ago when computation was more tedious than it is with modern software, it was common practice to use the formulas shown here to approximate $\bar X$ and $S^2$ for large samples. Results are usually pretty good if you use a dozen or so intervals.

(2) Some elementary statistics books (especially high-school AP statistics books) have formulas for estimating sample medians, other sample quantiles, estimating population modes from data summarized in the form of intervals and frequencies.

(3) See this related Q&A.

Source Link
BruceET
  • 57.6k
  • 2
  • 36
  • 95

Suppose we have data as shown in the histogram below. (Of course there are no ages below $0,$ but I wanted the histogram bars to be of equal widths.)

enter image description here

Suppose we make the simplifying approximation that all ages in each of the $k = 4$ histogram bins are at the centers of their intervals. Then we get frequencies $3, 41, 51, 5$ (for $n = 100$ subjects altogether) 'located' at midpoints $7, 25, 45, 65.$

Then the sample mean can be estimated as $$\bar X \approx \frac{1}{n}\sum_{i = 1}^k f_im_i = 36.66.$$

The average was computed, using R statistical software as a calculator, as follows:

f = c(3, 41, 51, 5)
m = c(7, 25, 45, 65)
a = sum(f*m)/100;  a
[1] 36.66

Perhaps somewhat less accurately, we can approximate the sample variance as follows:

$$S^2 \approx \frac{1}{n-1}\sum_{i=1}^k f_i(m_i - \bar X)^2 = 159.358.$$

v = sum(f*(m-a)^2)/99;  v
[1] 159.358

Unless you have the original data, you can't know how accurately $\bar X$ and $S^2$ are actually estimated by these formulas. However, I simulated the heights in R, so we can check the true values. For my simulated data the approximate values happen to be quite accurate. [I suspect results in this example turned out to be a little better than usual--especially because we used only four intervals.]

set.seed(2020)  # for reproducibility
x = round(rnorm(100, 35, 10))
summary(x)
   Min. 1st Qu.  Median    Mean 3rd Qu.    Max. 
   5.00   29.00   36.00   36.09   42.25   67.00 
var(x)
[1] 124.4666

Note: (1) Some years ago when computation was more tedious than it is with modern software, it was common practice to use the formulas shown here to approximate $\bar X$ and $S^2$ for large samples. Results are usually pretty good if you use a dozen or so intervals.

(2) Some elementary statistics books (especially high-school AP statistics books) have formulas for estimating sample medians, other sample quantiles, estimating population modes from data summarized in the form of intervals and frequencies.