Field

The interval that holds observations, not a mean

Every interval counted before this one is about a parameter. These are about the values themselves — what a band actually holds, and how often. Two sample standard deviations around a sample mean of ten observations holds 91.1% of the population on average, and less than the advertised 95.45% on 59.9% of samples, so the average is the reading that hides it. The interval between a sample's smallest and largest reading holds a share whose distribution is Beta(n − 1, 2) for any continuous population at all, and buying with no assumption what normality buys at ten observations costs ninety-three of them. That number is the exchange rate between an assumption and data, priced in observations. And a band for all of the next m observations has no ceiling at the tolerance factor: from ten observations, holding all of the next ten needs 3.716 standard deviations, already past the 3.382 that holds 95% of the population, while a 95% prediction interval holds all ten only 67.9% of the time.

What x-bar plus or minus 2 sample standard deviations holds, at n = 10. The content of the band is a random variable. Across 20,000 normal samples of 10 it averages 91.1%, its fifth percentile is 74.7%, and it falls short of 95% on 59.9% of samples. The band that is drawn to show where 95% of the data lies.

Two standard deviations of what

The 95.45% inside two standard deviations is a fact about a curve whose centre and width are given. Drawn from ten observations, the same band holds 91.1% on average and less than 95% on 59.9% of samples — and the average is the reading that hides it.

Three bands called 95%, at n = 20. Half-widths in sample standard deviations: 0.468 for the mean, 2.14 for one future observation, 2.75 to hold 95% of the population. The first two differ by exactly the square root of n + 1, which is 4.58 here.

A tenth as wide, and both of them right

The interval for a mean and the interval for one future observation are both labelled 95%, and at a hundred observations one is 10.05 times the other — exactly the square root of n + 1. Read the narrow one as the wide one and it covers a new value 15.7% of the time.

How many observations the smallest and largest of them need. The interval between the extremes of n draws holds at least 95% of the population with probability 1 - n p^(n-1) + (n-1) p^n, whatever the population is. Reaching 95% confidence takes 93 observations.

Ninety-three observations, and nothing assumed

The interval between the smallest and largest of a sample holds a share of the population whose distribution does not depend on the population — Beta(n − 1, 2), for anything continuous. Buying the 95/95 that normality buys at ten observations costs 93 of them, and that number is the exchange rate between an assumption and data.

The factor that holds all of the next m observations with 95% probability, from a sample of 10. From 10 observations, the band for one future value has factor 2.371, for ten 3.716, for a hundred 4.942 and for a thousand 6.008. The 95%-content tolerance factor is 3.382 and is passed by m = 10; the Bonferroni stretch of the prediction factor reaches 7.567 at a thousand.

All of the next ten

A warranty, a batch release or a monitoring rule promises something about every one of the next ten observations, not about one. From a sample of ten, the band that holds all ten with 95% probability reaches 3.716 sample standard deviations either side of the mean — already wider than the 3.382 of a tolerance interval for 95% of the population — and it keeps widening: 4.942 for a hundred, 6.008 for a thousand, with no ceiling. A 95% prediction interval, read as the answer, holds all ten 67.9% of the time: more than 0.95 to the tenth power, because the ten succeed and fail together.

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