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### why sample variance has has n-1 in the denominator? [duplicate]

Sample variance is calculated according to: $s^2=\frac{\sum{(x-\bar{x})^2}}{n-1}$ Population variance is calculated according to: $\sigma^2=\frac{\sum{(x-\mu)^2}}{n}$ Why denominator for sample ...
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### Alternate (?) definition of sample variance [duplicate]

The variance of a sample can be defined as $$s^2 = \frac{1}{2}\frac{1}{n(n-1)}\sum_{i}\sum_{j\ne i}\left(x_i - x_j\right)^2$$ Apart from the factor of $1/2$, this can be paraphrased verbally as ...
574 views

### The derivation of standard deviation [duplicate]

So, if there are $N$ data points in my sample space of any randomly distributed variable $X$. The standard deviation, $\sigma$, (from my understanding) is the root mean squared of the error (from the ...
221 views

### Estimates of variance from an iid sample [duplicate]

There are two kinds of estimates of variance from an iid sample $X1, \dots, X_n$ $1/n * \sum_i (X_i - \bar{X})^2$, which is MLE $1/(n-1) * \sum_i (X_i - \bar{X})^2$, which is unbiased. The unbiased ...
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### Intuition behind Besel's correction for an unbiased estimate of the variance [duplicate]

We have two estimators for samples dispersion: $\frac{1}{n}\sum_1^n (X_i - \overline{X_n})^2$ and $\frac{1}{n - 1}\sum_1^n (X_i - \overline{X_n})^2$. The second estimator unbiased - it has ...
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### Why Standard deviation formula has n-1 in the denominator but Variance only n? [duplicate]

If is true that SQRT(Variance) = SD then one cannot have n-1 in the denominator and the other not but should be same? SD formula: Variance formula:
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### What is the story of “$n-1$” in the denominator of an estimated variance? [duplicate]

In the book "Numerical Recipes in C" there is said that there is a long story about why the denominator of variance is $N-1$ instead of $N$. If you have never heard that story, you may consult any ...
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### Explanation for Bessel's correction [duplicate]

In textbooks and online the explanation for Bessel's correction is that the sample points are closer to the sample mean than the population mean.This is true for sampling with replacement as well. So, ...
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### Is there ever a right time to not use Bessel's Correction? [duplicate]

I can not find a clear explanation for when NOT to use Bessel's correction and use N instead of N-1. As I understand it, Bessel's correction would apply to things such as clinical trials, sampling ...
17 views

### Show estimator is unbiased [duplicate]

Consider the estimator of the variance given by the formula: $(S')^2 = \frac{1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n}(Y_i − µ)^2$ Is this a biased or unbiased estimator? I'm not sure if it is possible to prove ...
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### Degree of freedom [duplicate]

Why do we use degree of freedom while dealing with samples(e.g. while calculating t statistic and sample variance, we divide by $n-1$ degree of freedom, but while calculating z score and population ...
38k views

### How exactly did statisticians agree to using (n-1) as the unbiased estimator for population variance without simulation?

The formula for computing variance has $(n-1)$ in the denominator: $s^2 = \frac{\sum_{i=1}^N (x_i - \bar{x})^2}{n-1}$ I've always wondered why. However, reading and watching a few good videos about "...
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### Why does one have to use REML (instead of ML) for choosing among nested var-covar models?

Various descriptions on model selection on random effects of Linear Mixed Models instruct to use REML. I know difference between REML and ML at some level, but I don't understand why REML should be ...