Random Sampling and Polling
Overview
Random sampling is somewhat difficult to define. At its most general level, it means drawing samples from some
constant distribution. Generally, the samples are taken to have been drawn in an
independent
fashion, and drawn from the same distribution.
The canonical example of random sampling is drawing a random sample from some population. In order for the samples to have
come from identical distributions, each sample is returned to the population before drawing the next data point.
Inference
In general, the point of obtaining a random sample is in order to make
some
inferences
about the population from which they were drawn.
In particular, the
moments
of the popuation are usually of interest.
Topics
- Polling
- is the process of surveying from a population of people. It is similar to
sampling from other populations, but is more complex and comes with a its own challenges.
- Experiment -
in a random experiment, the assignment of individuals to the treatment or the control group is random
- Observational Studies
- the assigment of an individual in the study to treatment or control is not within the control of
the researcher.
Basic Statistics
Implementation
of basic summary statistics.
