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Chapter Seven
Sampling Distributions & Point Estimation of
Parameters
Chapter Goals:
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
 Explain the general concepts of estimating the parameters of a population or a
probability distribution.
 Explain the important role of the normal distribution as a sampling distribution.
 Understand the central limit theorem.
Introduction;
As discussed in the last chapters, statistics are numbers we can calculate from sample
data, usually as estimates of population parameters. However, a large number of
different samples can be taken from the same population, and each sample will produce
slightly different statistics. To be able to understand how a sample statistic relates to an
underlying population parameter we need to understand how the statistic can vary.
To use sample data to make inferences about the population values , it is necessary to
make some assumptions about the population values and about the relationship
between the sample and the population. These assimptions are
1. there is an underlying probaility distribution for the population values.
2. the values of different members of the population are assumed to be
independent random varibles having accomon distribution.
3. the sample data are assumed to be independent values from this distribution (
the population distribution).
4. thus, by observing the sample data we are able to learn about this underlying
distribution.

Definition:
If X1, X2, X3,…,Xn are independent random variables (sample) of size n from finite
population of size N having a common probability distribution, we can say that X1, X2,
X3,…,Xn constitute a sample from the distribution.

Definition:
If X1, X2, X3,…,Xn are random variables (sample) of size n from infinite population f(x) if
1. Each Xi is random variable whose distribution is given by f(x)
2. These n random variables are independent

In some applications, the population distribution will not be completely known, and
one will attempt to use the sample data to make inferences about it.
In this chapter we are concerned with the probability distributions of certain statistics
that arise from a sample, where a statistic is numerical quantity whose value is
determined by thesample. Tow important statistics that we will consider
1. the sample mean
2. the sample standard deviation (the sample variance).
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Point Estimation

Consider a population of elements, each elements has a numerical value attached with
it. And suppose that the value associated with any element of the population can be
regarded as being the value of a random variable having expectation μ and variance  2 .
The quentities μ and  2 are called the population mean and the population variaance

Let X1, X2, X3,…,Xn are a sample values from this population. Then

1. The sample mean: X 

 x is a point estimate of the population mean, μ.
n

2. The sample standard deviation: S 

x 2
 nx 2
is a point estimate of the
n1
population standard deviation,  .
𝑥
3. The sample proportion 𝑝̂ = 𝑛: is a point estimate of the population proportion 𝑝,

where 𝑥 is the number of items in a random sample of size 𝑛 that belong to the
class of interset
4. The sample mean, sample variance and sample proportion are also random
variables called statistics
5. Statistics have their unique distributions which are called sampling distributions.

Since the value of the sample mean X is determined by the values of the random
valriables in the sample, the aim is to find the mean expected value and the variance of
the sample mean
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7.2: The Sampling Distribution of the mean when σ known:

A sampling distribution is a distribution of the possible values of a statistic for a given
sample size selected from a population. ( the probability distribution of a statistic is
caleed a sampling distibution)

Developing a Sampling Distribution

Assume there is a population, the size of the population is N = 4 (A, B, C, D), Let X be a
random variable that defined the age of individuals
Values of x: 18 for A, 20 for B, 22 for C, 24 for D (years).
Then
Summary Measures for the Population Distribution:


 xi  18  20  22  24  21
N 4

  (x i   )2
 2.236
N
Now
Select samples each sample of size 2,
then find the sample mean for each sample.

There is 16 possible samples (sampling with replacement)

1st 2nd observation

observation 18 20 22 24
18 (18,18) (18,20) (18,22) (18,24)
20 (20,18) (20,20) (20,22) (20,24)
22 (22,18) (22,20) (22,22) (22,24)
24 (24,18) (24,20) (24,22) (24,24)
There is 16 Sample Means
1st 2nd observation
observation 18 20 22 24
18 18 19 20 21
20 19 20 21 22
22 20 21 22 23
24 21 22 23 24
The sampling distribution for all the sample means is not uniform, it has bell shape
and

X 
 X i  18  19  21   24  21
N 16

X   (X i  X )2
N
(18 - 21)2  (19 - 21)2   (24 - 21)2
  1.58
16
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Comparing the Population with its Sampling Distribution

Population Sample

N= 4, μ  21, σ  2.236 n=2, μ x  21, σ x  1.58

Theorem:
If a population is normal with mean μ and standard deviation σ, the sampling
distribution of X is also normal with

Mean  X   and standard deviation  X 
n

Z -value for the sampling distribution of X :

X  X  X    n
Z 
X 
where: X = sample mean, μ = population mean, σ = population standard
deviation n = sample size.

Example:
Weekly food expenditure of students at KFUPM has anormal distribution with mean
250 riyals and variance 200 riyals

a. Find the probability that a student will spend more than 270 riyals.
b. Find the probability that the mean food expenditure of randomly selected 9
students is more than 270 riyals
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Example:
An electronics company manufacturer resistors that have a mean reistance of 100 ohms
and standard deviation of 10 ohms. The distribution of the resistance is normal.
1. Find the probablity that a random sample of size 25 resistors will have an
average resistance of fewer than 95 ohms.
2. Find the probablity that a random sample of size 25 resistors will have a total
resistance of fewer than 110 ohms.
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The Central Limit Theorem (CLT): (If the Population is not Normal)
Let X1, X2, X3,…,Xn be a sample values from a population having mean μ and standard
deviation . Then the sample means from the population will be approximately normal as
long as the sample size is large enough  n  30  and the sampling distribution will have

 x   and  x 
n
Note:
 For most distributions, n > 30 will give a sampling distribution that is nearly normal
 For fairly symmetric distributions, n > 5

Example:
the number of driving miles before a certain kind of tire being to show wear is, on
average, 16800 miles and with standard deviation 3300 miles. A car rental agency buys
36 of these tires for replacement purposes and put each one on a different car.

1. Find the probability that the 36 tires will average less than 16000 miles until they
begin to show wear.
2. Find the probability that the 30 tiers will average more than 18000 mles until they
begin to show wear.
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Example:
The life time of acertain type of electric bulbs has expected value 500 hours.

1. Find probability that a bulb will lives mor than 480 hours
2. Approximate te probability the sample mean of 30 such lightbulbs is less than
480 hours
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Example:
Suppose that a random variable 𝑋 has a continuous uniform distribution

1
𝑓(𝑥) = , 2 ≤ 𝑥 ≤ 6
4

1. Find the distribution of the sample mean of a random sample of size 16

2. Find the probability that the sample mean is greater than 4.2