Module 5.

Sampling Distribution and

Central Limit Theorem

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1
 Introduction
Statistical methods are used to make decisions and draw conclusions
about populations. This aspect of statistics is generally called statistical
inference. These techniques utilize the information in a sample for drawing
conclusions. This chapter covers the study of the statistical methods used in
decision making.
Statistical inference has one major areas which is the parameter
estimation. In practice, the engineer will use sample data to compute a
number that is in some sense a reasonable value (a good guess) of the true
population mean. This number is called a point estimate. In this chapter,
we will see that procedures are available for developing point estimates of
parameters that have good statistical properties.

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 Learning Objectives

At the end of this module, it is expected that the students

will be able to:
1. Explain and understand the general concepts of
estimating the parameters of a
population or a probability distribution.
2. Calculate and explain the important rule of the normal
distribution as a sampling distribution and the central limit
theorem.

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 Point Estimation
• Point estimation is the process of using the data available to estimate the unknown value of a parameter,
when some representative statistical model has been proposed for the variation observed in some chance
phenomenon.
• A point estimate of some population parameter θ is a single numerical value of a statistic . The statistic is
called the point estimator.
As an example, suppose that the random variable X is normally distributed with an unknown mean
μ. Sample mean is a point estimator of the unknown population mean μ. That is, μ = xത .After the sample has
been selected, the numerical value is the point estimate of μ. Thus, if x1 = 25, x2 = 30, x3 = 29, and x4 = 31,
the point estimate of μ is

• Similarly, if the population variance σ2 is also unknown, a point estimator for σ2 is the sample variance
s 2 , and the numerical value s 2 = 6.9 calculated from the sample data is called the point estimate of σ2.

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 Point Estimation
Estimation problems occur frequently in engineering. We
often need to estimate
• The mean μ of a single population
• The variance σ 2 (or standard deviation σ) of a single
population
• The proportion p of items in a population that belong to a
class of interest
• The difference in means of two populations, μ1 − μ2
• The difference in two population proportions, p1 − p2

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 Sampling Distributions and the Central Limit
Theorem
• Random Sample
The random variables are usually assumed to be independent and identically distributed.
These random variables are known as a random sample. The random variables X1, X2, … , Xn are a
random sample of size n if (a) the Xi ’s are independent random variables and (b) every Xi has the
same probability distribution.
• Statistic
Such a random variable is called statistic. A statistic is any function of the observations in a
random sample. We have encountered statistics before. For example, if X1, X2, … , Xn is a random
sample of size n, the sample mean xത ,the sample variance S2 , and the sample standard deviation S
are statistics. Because a statistic is a random variable, it has a probability distribution.
• Sampling distribution
The probability distribution of a statistic is called a sampling distribution. The sampling
distribution of a statistic depends on the distribution of the population, the size of the samples, and
the method of choosing the samples. The probability distribution of xത is called the sampling
distribution of the mean
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 Sampling Distributions and the Central Limit
Theorem
• Central Limit Theorem
If we are sampling from a population that has an unknown probability distribution, the
sampling distribution of the sample mean will still be approximately normal with mean μ and
variance σ2/n if the sample n is large. This is one of the most useful theorems in statistics, called the
central limit theorem.
States that under general conditions, sums and means of random samples of measurements
drawn from a population tend to possess an approximately normal distribution as the size of samples
increases.
If X1, X2, … , Xn is a random sample of size n taken from a population (either finite or
infinite) with mean μ and finite variance σ2 and if is the sample mean, the limiting form of the
distribution of

as n → ∞ is the standard normal distribution

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 Sampling Distributions and the Central Limit
Theorem

Figure illustrates how the theorem works. It shows how the

distribution of X becomes closer to normal as n grows larger,
beginning with the clearly nonsymmetric distribution of an
individual observation (n = 1). It also illustrates that the mean of
X remains μ for any sample size and the variance of gets smaller
as n increases.

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 Sampling Distributions and the Central Limit
Theorem
• Central Limit Theorem
Example 1:
An electrical firm manufactures light bulbs that have a length of life that is approximately normally
distributed, with mean equal to 800 hours and a standard deviation of 40 hours. Find the probability
that a random sample of 16 bulbs will have an average life of less than 775 hours.
Solution:
Given:
xത = 775
µ = 800
n = 16
σ = 40

ഥ
X − μ 775 − 800
Z= σ = = −2.5, P X < 775 , P Z < −2.5 = 𝟎. 𝟎𝟎𝟔𝟐
40
n 16
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 Sampling Distributions and the Central Limit
Theorem
• Central Limit Theorem
Example 2:
The length of the battery of the 2D echo machine is approximately normally distributed, with mean
equal to 500 hours and standard deviation of 20 hours. Find the probability that a random sample of
10 batteries will have an average of less than 483 hours.
Given:
X-bar = 483
M = 500
N = 10
Std dev. = 20

ഥ− μ
X 483 −500
Z= σ = 20 = -2.69 = 0.0036
n 10

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 Approximate Sampling Distribution of a Difference in
Sample Means

If we have two independent populations with means μ1 and μ2 and variances σ12 and
σ22 and if X1 and X2 are the sample means of two independent random samples of sizes n1
and n2 from these populations, then the sampling distribution of the equation below is
approximately standard normal if the conditions of the central limit theorem apply. If the two
populations are normal, the sampling distribution of Z is exactly standard normal.

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 Approximate Sampling Distribution of a Difference in
Sample Means
Example 1: The television picture tubes of manufacturer A have a mean lifetime of 6.5 years
and a standard deviation of 0.9 year, while those of manufacturer B have a mean lifetime of
6.0 years and a standard deviation of 0.8 year. What is the probability that a random sample
of 36 tubes from manufacturer A will have a mean lifetime that is at least 1 year more than
the mean lifetime of a sample of 49 tubes from manufacturer B? Given the following
information.

©2017 Batangas State University

 Approximate Sampling Distribution of a Difference in
Sample Means
Example 1: The television picture tubes of manufacturer A have a mean lifetime of 6.5 years
and a standard deviation of 0.9 year, while those of manufacturer B have a mean lifetime of
6.0 years and a standard deviation of 0.8 year. What is the probability that a random sample
of 36 tubes from manufacturer A will have a mean lifetime that is at least 1 year more than
the mean lifetime of a sample of 49 tubes from manufacturer B? Given the following
information.

𝑋1 − 𝑋2 − (𝑀1 − 𝑀2)
𝑍=
𝜎12 𝜎22
+
𝑁1 𝑁2
1−(6.5−6.0)
𝑍= 2 2
= 2.65 = 1 – 0.9960 = 0.0040
0.9 08
36
+ 49

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