17/02/2015

7.2.5.2.Percentiles

7.ProductandProcessComparisons
7.2.Comparisonsbasedondatafromoneprocess
7.2.5.Whatintervalscontainafixedpercentageofthepopulationvalues?

7.2.5.2. Percentiles
Definitionsof
order
statisticsand
ranks

ForaseriesofmeasurementsY1,...,YN,denotethedata
orderedinincreasingorderofmagnitudebyY[1],...,Y[N].
Theseordereddataarecalledorderstatistics.IfY[j]isthe
orderstatisticthatcorrespondstothemeasurementYi,then
therankforYiisji.e.,

Definitionof
percentiles

Orderstatisticsprovideawayofestimatingproportionsof
thedatathatshouldfallaboveandbelowagivenvalue,
calledapercentile.Thepthpercentileisavalue,Y(p),such
thatatmost(100p)%ofthemeasurementsarelessthanthis
valueandatmost100(1p)%aregreater.The50th
percentileiscalledthemedian.
Percentilessplitasetofordereddataintohundredths.
(Decilessplitordereddataintotenths).Forexample,70%of
thedatashouldfallbelowthe70thpercentile.

Estimationof
percentiles

PercentilescanbeestimatedfromNmeasurementsas
follows:forthepthpercentile,setp(N+1)equaltok+dfor
kaninteger,andd,afractiongreaterthanorequalto0and
lessthan1.

1. For0<k<N,
2. Fork=0,Y(p)=Y[1]
3. Fork=N,Y(p)=Y[N]
Exampleand
interpretation

Forthepurposeofillustration,twelvemeasurementsfroma
gagestudyareshownbelow.Themeasurementsare
resistivitiesofsiliconwafersmeasuredinohm.cm.
iMeasurementsOrderstatsRanks
195.177295.06109
295.156795.09256
395.193795.106510

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/prc/section2/prc252.htm

1/2

17/02/2015

7.2.5.2.Percentiles

495.195995.119511
595.144295.14425
695.061095.15671
795.159195.15917
895.119595.16824
995.106595.17723
1095.092595.19372
1195.199095.195912
1295.168295.19908

Tofindthe90%percentile,p(N+1)=0.9(13)=11.7k=11,
andd=0.7.Fromcondition(1)above,Y(0.90)isestimated
tobe95.1981ohm.cm.Thispercentile,althoughitisan
estimatefromasmallsampleofresistivitiesmeasurements,
givesanindicationofthepercentileforapopulationof
resistivitymeasurements.
Notethat
thereare
otherwaysof
calculating
percentilesin
commonuse

Somesoftwarepackages(EXCEL,forexample)set1+p(N
1)equaltok+d,thenproceedasabove.Thetwomethods
givefairlysimilarresults.

Definitionof
Tolerance
Interval

Anintervalcoveringpopulationpercentilescanbe
interpretedas"coveringaproportionpofthepopulation
withalevelofconfidence,say,90%."Thisisknownasa
toleranceinterval.

Athirdwayofcalculatingpercentiles(giveninsome
elementarytextbooks)startsbycalculatingpN.Ifthatisnot
aninteger,rounduptothenexthighestintegerkanduse
Y[k]asthepercentileestimate.IfpNisanintegerk,use
.5(Y[k]+Y[k+1]).

http://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handbook/prc/section2/prc252.htm

2/2