Descriptive Statistics as Point Estimates:

If our sample is reliable then we can use the information it provides to ________
generalize
about the larger population from which it was drawn (statistical inference).
One way to do this is to compute descriptive __________
statistics (numerical values that
describe a data set), to use as estimates for the population measures.
When descriptive statistics are used to estimate their corresponding population
measures, they are called point
_____ estimates
________ (because they are a single value or point).
• The _______
sample mean, x̅, is a point estimate for the population mean, 𝜇.

• The sample standard deviation, ___,

S is a point estimate of the population
standard deviation, 𝜎.
It is understandable that different samples produce different point estimates.
In random sampling these fluctuations, called _______
samplingerror, are unavoidable.