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Statistics for Decision- Making in Business - Maricopa Community ...

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We see that the standard deviation (<strong>in</strong> red) is just slightly larger than that of the standard normal<br />

(<strong>in</strong> blue) – it is about 1.0339. So, as sample size gets greater, the -distribution beg<strong>in</strong>s to look<br />

more like a standard normal. BUT, look at the one below where sample size is 10:<br />

The variability is nearly 14% greater.<br />

As we mentioned, this distribution‟s shape relies on the sample size. The relationship is called<br />

the degrees of freedom and can be calculated as<br />

, that is degrees of freedom is equal<br />

to one less than the sample size.<br />

So, <strong>in</strong> our previous example, we had a sample size of 30, so<br />

In a probability calculator, we would enter 29 <strong>for</strong> the degrees of freedom:<br />

<strong>Statistics</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Decision</strong>-<strong>Mak<strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>in</strong> Bus<strong>in</strong>ess © Milos Podmanik Page 197

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