Thread: Polulation and Sample

Does anyone know that how can I distinguish data whether it is population or sample?

There are 2 formulas for finding out variance but i don't really get how to find out which quesitons is asking me to use population or sampe...


Thanks.

Originally Posted by Changhons

Does anyone know that how can I distinguish data whether it is population or sample?

There are 2 formulas for finding out variance but i don't really get how to find out which quesitons is asking me to use population or sampe...


Thanks.

If you have ALL of the data possible for a group then you have the entire population -- this is rare.
If you have a representative quantity of data then that is a sample -- this is most common.

If you have ten olives and are testing for specific items in those ten olives only then you have a total population.

However, if you are testing for something that is applicable to ALL olives, even though you many have several million data pieces, then that is a sample.