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Sample Variance: Why the (n-1)? Understanding Bessel's Correction

BurkeyAcademy 1,405 2 years ago
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This is NOT a proof of Bessel's correction. Instead, we explore several ideas to help you understand why the "n-1" makes sense. It boils down to the fact that we (usually) don't know the population mean when we are estimating the variance. My Website: http://www.burkeyacademy.com/ Support me on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/burkeyacademy Talk to me on my SubReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BurkeyAcademy/ Buy me a cup of coffee on PayPal? http://paypal.me/BurkeyAcademy 1:52 Overview of the Pieces we will explore 6:10 Sample means minimize the formula 15:11 Simulations in Rstudio 20:11 Dividing by N makes estimates too small 26:50 If we know the population mean, we can divide by N! 28:40 Using Bessel Correction also gives unbiased estimates

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