Lecture

Uncertainty and Significant Figures

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In course

EE-209: Elements of statistics for data science

Théorie de l'estimation: estimateurs du maximum de vraisemblance, information de Fisher, inégalité de Cramer-Rao, intervalles de confiance. Tests d'hypothèses: cadre de Neyman-Pearson: test du rapport de vraisemblance, tests paramétriques et non-parmétriq ...

Description

This lecture covers an overview of confidence intervals, margin of error, effective coverage, pivots, and significant figures. It explains how to determine uncertainty, precision, and the number of significant figures from a confidence interval. The slides discuss the construction of confidence intervals, the Wilson score confidence interval for the maximum likelihood estimator, and the importance of reporting numbers at an appropriate precision level.

Instructor

Florent Gérard Krzakala

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Statistics

Statistical inference: Mathematical statistics

Related concepts (31)

Coverage probability

In statistics, the coverage probability, or coverage for short, is the probability that a confidence interval or confidence region will include the true value (parameter) of interest. It can be defined as the proportion of instances where the interval surrounds the true value as assessed by long-run frequency. The fixed degree of certainty pre-specified by the analyst, referred to as the confidence level or confidence coefficient of the constructed interval, is effectively the nominal coverage probability of the procedure for constructing confidence intervals.

Binomial proportion confidence interval

In statistics, a binomial proportion confidence interval is a confidence interval for the probability of success calculated from the outcome of a series of success–failure experiments (Bernoulli trials). In other words, a binomial proportion confidence interval is an interval estimate of a success probability p when only the number of experiments n and the number of successes nS are known. There are several formulas for a binomial confidence interval, but all of them rely on the assumption of a binomial distribution.

Estimation theory

Estimation theory is a branch of statistics that deals with estimating the values of parameters based on measured empirical data that has a random component. The parameters describe an underlying physical setting in such a way that their value affects the distribution of the measured data. An estimator attempts to approximate the unknown parameters using the measurements.

Maximum likelihood estimation

In statistics, maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) is a method of estimating the parameters of an assumed probability distribution, given some observed data. This is achieved by maximizing a likelihood function so that, under the assumed statistical model, the observed data is most probable. The point in the parameter space that maximizes the likelihood function is called the maximum likelihood estimate. The logic of maximum likelihood is both intuitive and flexible, and as such the method has become a dominant means of statistical inference.

Confidence distribution

In statistical inference, the concept of a confidence distribution (CD) has often been loosely referred to as a distribution function on the parameter space that can represent confidence intervals of all levels for a parameter of interest. Historically, it has typically been constructed by inverting the upper limits of lower sided confidence intervals of all levels, and it was also commonly associated with a fiducial interpretation (fiducial distribution), although it is a purely frequentist concept.

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