Does this help you get OPTS502M201921-2

Suresh Venkatraman

good grades?
Guinness contains antioxidants like those
Originally intended for session 4 on 10th Oct

found in red wine and dark chocolate, which

are not found in other beers.

A study by the University of Wisconsin found

that drinking Guinness can reduce blood
clots and the risk of heart attack.

But there is no evidence it helps you get

good grades!

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 t Distribution 1 of 6

 Then why bring this up? OPTS502M201921-2
Suresh Venkatraman

Because this man who was heading

Originally intended for session 4 on 10th Oct

R&D at Guinness wrote a paper in a

Statistics Journal under the
pseudonym “Student”.
His real name is Willam Gosset.
He had signed a contract with his
company that he would not publish
anything which could be of use to
their competitors.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 t Distribution 2 of 6

 Consider two random OPTS502M201921-2
Suresh Venkatraman

variables Z1 and Y1
• Z1 follows the standard normal distribution with µ =0, σ =1.
Originally intended for session 4 on 10th Oct

• Y1 follows a ChiSquare distribution with 5 degrees of freedom

• Let us define Y2 as the square root of (Y1 divided by 5)
• Y2 = sqrt(Y1 / 5)
• Then the random variable U = Z1 / Y2 follows the t distribution
with 5 degrees of freedom.
• The t distribution is of immense use in dealing with small
samples.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 t Distribution 3 of 6

 Are there other t OPTS502M201921-2
Suresh Venkatraman

distributions?
Originally intended for session 4 on 10th Oct

Suppose our random variable Y1 followed a ChiSquare

distribution with n degrees of freedom,
We would have defined Y2 = sqrt(Y1 / n)
And the ratio Z1 / Y2 would follow a t distribution with n
degrees of freedom.
Like the X2 distribution, members of the family of t
distribution are uniquely identified by their degrees of
freedom.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 t Distribution 4 of 6

 Summary statistics of OPTS502M201921-2
Suresh Venkatraman

the t distribution
• For a t distribution with n degrees of freedom,
Originally intended for session 4 on 10th Oct

• E(U) = 0 : defined only for n>1

• The t distribution has median = mode = mean
• It is symmetric and is defined from minus infinity to plus
infinity (hence asymptotic at both ends).
• Var(U) = n/(n-2) : defined only for n>2
• The smallest possible n is 3; then Var(U) = 3/(3-2)= 3
• When n becomes very large n/(n-2) becomes almost 1.
• Then it looks like the standard normal distribution.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 t Distribution 5 of 6

 t distributions family with OPTS502M201921-2
Suresh Venkatraman

their friend (Z)

Originally intended for session 4 on 10th Oct

Lower the degrees of freedom, higher the variance [n/(n-2)],

hence thicker the tails and therefore lower the peak

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 t Distribution 6 of 6