CBE Interdisciplinary Glossary

Well, I'd have to say that this is not your standard error.

Cartoon by J. Pennington

Statistics

COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION A measure of the relative spread in a set of measurements; calculated as the standard deviation divided by the mean, and frequently multiplied by 100%.

(SAMPLE) STANDARD DEVIATION A measure of the "average" spread of a set of measurements; has the same units as the original measurements.

SAMPLING VARIATION The phenomenon in which repeated measurements of a system, or repeated trials of an experiment, result in different outcomes. May arise due to uncontrolled variables, instrumentation limits, or to inherently stochastic (random) properties of the system being measured.

STANDARD ERROR The standard deviation of a statistic; a measure of the "average" spread of the values of the statistic that would be obtained from repeated samples or experiments of the same size.

STATISTIC A mathematical function of a set of measurements, typically used to summarize a data set or to estimate unknown parameters. The mean, the standard deviation, the correlation coefficient, and the slope of a regression line are examples of statistics.

STATISTICAL INFERENCE Formal procedures for analyzing experimental data and assessing the uncertainty of the analysis results. Hypothesis testing and parameter estimation are two important statistical inference topics.

UNCERTAINTY ASSESSMENT Quantifying (using the mathematics of probability theory) the uncertainty of inferences drawn from an experiment; the uncertainty is a consequence of having only partial information (a sample) of the system, and is manifest in the phenomenon of sampling variation.

Keith wasn't sure, but he estimated that his lack of understanding did not deviate significantly from what he already knew.

Cartoon by J. Pennington

Table of Contents

Terms & Concepts by Discipline

Index