Sampling#
+Important Readings
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[FPP07], Chapter 19, 20
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Sample Surveys#
+Researchers are often interested in populations. This is the group of individuals to which the research aims to generalize. The numerical facts of interest are called parameters. Maybe you want to know the average lifespan of owls. The parameter of interest is the average lifespan. The population of interest is all owls.
+Of course, the leading owl experts don’t study every single owl. Nearly all researchers work with samples, or some subset of the larger population. One could estimate the average lifespan of owls from a sample, but this wouldn’t be a parameter. We reserve parameter as a term for populations. Instead the sample average is a statistic meant to estimate the population parameter.
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