Physics307L:Schedule/Week 4 agenda/Calculating mean/Standard error
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From wikipedia
See also: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214076
Standard error of the mean
The standard error of the mean of a sample from a population is the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the mean, and may be estimated by the formula:
- [math]\displaystyle{ S_E = \frac{\widehat\sigma}{\sqrt{n}} }[/math]
where
- [math]\displaystyle{ \widehat\sigma }[/math] is an estimate of the standard deviation σ of the population, and
- n is the size (number of items) of the sample.
Note: Standard error may also be defined as the standard deviation of the residual error term. (Kenney and Keeping, p. 187; Zwillinger 1995, p. 626)
Standard errors
Single sample
- [math]\displaystyle{ \sigma_{\overline{x}} = \frac{\sigma}{\sqrt{n}} }[/math]