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<document xmlns="http://cnx.rice.edu/cnxml" xmlns:md="http://cnx.rice.edu/mdml/0.4" xmlns:bib="http://bibtexml.sf.net/" xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="new">
  <name>Central Limit Theorem: Introduction</name>
  <metadata>
  <md:version>1.6</md:version>
  <md:created>2008/06/06 15:00:03 GMT-5</md:created>
  <md:revised>2008/07/18 16:58:29.817 GMT-5</md:revised>
  <md:authorlist>
      <md:author id="billowsky">
      <md:firstname>Barbara</md:firstname>
      
      <md:surname>Illowsky</md:surname>
      <md:email>illowskybarbara@deanza.edu</md:email>
    </md:author>
      <md:author id="sdean">
      <md:firstname>Susan</md:firstname>
      
      <md:surname>Dean</md:surname>
      <md:email>deansusan@deanza.edu</md:email>
    </md:author>
  </md:authorlist>

  <md:maintainerlist>
    <md:maintainer id="cnxorg">
      <md:firstname/>
      
      <md:surname>Connexions</md:surname>
      <md:email>cnx@cnx.org</md:email>
    </md:maintainer>
  </md:maintainerlist>
  
  <md:keywordlist>
    <md:keyword>elementary</md:keyword>
    <md:keyword>statistics</md:keyword>
  </md:keywordlist>

  <md:abstract>This module provides a brief introduction to the Central Limit Theorem.</md:abstract>
</metadata>
  <content>
<section id="element-650"><name>Student Learning Objectives</name>
<para id="element-745">
By the end of this chapter, the student should be able to:
</para>

<list id="list6234">
<item>Recognize the Central Limit Theorem problems.</item>
<item>Classify continuous word problems by their distributions.</item>
<item>Apply and interpret the Central Limit Theorem for Averages.</item>
<item>Apply and interpret the Central Limit Theorem for Sums.</item>
</list></section><section><name>Introduction</name>
    <para id="delete_me">
    What does it mean to be average? Why are we so concerned with averages? Two
reasons are that they give us a middle ground for comparison and they are easy to
calculate. In this chapter, you will study averages and the Central Limit Theorem.</para><para id="element-164"><term src="#centlimit">The Central Limit Theorem</term> (CLT for short) is one of the most powerful and
useful ideas in all of statistics. Both alternatives are concerned with drawing finite
samples of size <m:math><m:mi>n</m:mi></m:math> from a population with a known mean,

<m:math>
<m:mi>μ</m:mi>
</m:math>, and a known standard
deviation, 

<m:math>
<m:mi>σ</m:mi>
</m:math>. The first alternative says that if we collect samples of size 
<m:math>
<m:mi>n</m:mi>
</m:math> and 
<m:math>
<m:mi>n</m:mi>
</m:math> is
"large enough," calculate each sample's mean, and create a histogram of those means,
then the resulting histogram will tend to have an approximate normal bell shape. The
second alternative says that if we again collect samples of size n that are "large
enough," calculate the sum of each sample and create a histogram, then the resulting
histogram will again tend to have a normal bell-shape.</para><para id="element-328"><emphasis>In either case, it does not matter what the distribution of the original
population is, or whether you even need to know it. The important fact is
that the sample means (averages) and the sums tend to follow the normal
distribution.</emphasis> And, the rest you will learn in this chapter.</para><para id="element-17">The size of the sample, 
<m:math><m:mi>n</m:mi></m:math>, depends on the original population from which the samples are
drawn. If the original population is far from normal then more observations are needed
for the sample averages or the sample sums to be normal. <emphasis>Sampling is done with
replacement.</emphasis></para><para id="element-332"><emphasis>Do the following example in class:</emphasis> Suppose 8 of you roll 1 fair die 10 times, 7 of you
roll 2 fair dice 10 times, 9 of you roll 5 fair dice 10 times, and 11 of you roll 10 fair dice
10 times. (The 8, 7, 9, and 11 were randomly chosen.)</para><para id="element-42">Each time a person rolls more than one die, he/she calculates the <term src="#average">average</term> of the faces
showing. For example, one person might roll 5 fair dice and get a 2, 2, 3, 4, 6 on one
roll.</para><para id="element-994">The average is
<m:math>
<m:mspace width="10pt"/>
<m:mfrac>
<m:mrow>
<m:mn>2</m:mn>
<m:mo>+</m:mo>
<m:mn>2</m:mn>
<m:mo>+</m:mo>
<m:mn>3</m:mn>
<m:mo>+</m:mo>
<m:mn>4</m:mn>
<m:mo>+</m:mo>
<m:mn>6</m:mn>
</m:mrow>
<m:mrow>
<m:mn>5</m:mn>
</m:mrow>
</m:mfrac>
<m:mo>=</m:mo>
<m:mn>3.4</m:mn>
</m:math>.
<m:math><m:mspace width="10pt"/></m:math>
The 3.4 is one average when 5 fair dice are rolled. This same person would roll the 5 dice 9 more times and calculate 9 more averages for a total of 10 averages.</para><para id="element-200">Your instructor will pass out the dice to several people as described above. Roll your
dice 10 times. For each roll, record the faces and find the average. Round to the nearest
0.5.</para><para id="element-73">Your instructor (and possibly you) will produce one graph (it might be a histogram)
for 1 die, one graph for 2 dice, one graph for 5 dice, and one graph for 10 dice.
Since the "average" when you roll one die, is just the face on the die, what distribution
do these "averages" appear to be representing?</para><para id="element-938"><emphasis>Draw the graph for the averages using 2 dice.</emphasis> Do the averages show any kind of pattern?
</para><para id="element-182"><emphasis>Draw the graph for the averages using 5 dice.</emphasis> Do you see any pattern emerging?
</para><para id="element-131"><emphasis>Finally, draw the graph for the averages using 10 dice.</emphasis> Do you see any pattern to the
graph? What can you conclude as you increase the number of dice?</para><para id="element-368">As the number of dice rolled increases from 1 to 2 to 5 to 10, the following is happening:

<list id="list-1" type="enumerated">
<item>The average of the averages remains approximately the same.</item>
<item>The spread of the averages (the standard deviation of the averages) gets smaller.</item>
<item>The graph appears steeper and thinner.</item>
</list></para><para id="element-730">You have just demonstrated the Central Limit Theorem (CLT).</para><para id="element-266">The Central Limit Theorem tells you that as you increase the number of dice, <emphasis>the sample means
(averages) tend toward a normal distribution.</emphasis></para> </section>  
  </content>
  <glossary>

  <definition id="average">
    <term>Average</term>
    <meaning>
      A number that describes the central tendency of the data. There are a number of specialized averages, including the arithmetic mean, weighted mean, median, mode, and geometric mean.
    </meaning>
  </definition>


  <definition id="centlimit">
    <term>Central Limit Theorem</term>
    <meaning>
     Given a random variable (RV) with known mean <m:math><m:mi>μ</m:mi></m:math> and known variance <m:math><m:mi>σ</m:mi></m:math>
<m:math><m:semantics><m:mrow><m:mstyle fontsize="12pt"><m:mrow><m:msup><m:mrow/><m:mstyle fontsize="8pt"><m:mrow><m:mn>2</m:mn></m:mrow></m:mstyle></m:msup></m:mrow></m:mstyle><m:mrow/></m:mrow><m:annotation encoding="StarMath 5.0"> size 12{ {} rSup { size 8{2} } } {}</m:annotation></m:semantics></m:math>, we are sampling with size n and we are interested in two new RV - sample mean, 
<m:math><m:semantics><m:mrow><m:mstyle fontsize="12pt"><m:mrow><m:mover accent="true"><m:mi>X</m:mi><m:mo stretchy="false">ˉ</m:mo></m:mover></m:mrow></m:mstyle><m:mrow/></m:mrow><m:annotation encoding="StarMath 5.0"> size 12{ { bar  {X}}} {}</m:annotation></m:semantics></m:math>,and sample sum,<m:math><m:mi>Σ</m:mi></m:math> 
<m:math><m:semantics><m:mrow><m:mstyle fontsize="12pt"><m:mrow><m:mi>X</m:mi></m:mrow></m:mstyle><m:mrow/></m:mrow><m:annotation encoding="StarMath 5.0"> size 12{X} {}</m:annotation></m:semantics></m:math>. If the size n of the sample is sufficiently large, then 
<m:math><m:semantics><m:mrow><m:mstyle fontsize="12pt"><m:mrow><m:mover accent="true"><m:mi>X</m:mi><m:mo stretchy="false">ˉ</m:mo></m:mover></m:mrow></m:mstyle><m:mrow/></m:mrow><m:annotation encoding="StarMath 5.0"> size 12{ { bar  {X}}} {}</m:annotation></m:semantics></m:math>∼ 

<m:math>
 <m:mi>N</m:mi>
  <m:mfenced>
    <m:mi>nμ</m:mi>
    <m:mfrac>
      <m:msup>
        <m:mi>σ</m:mi>
        <m:mn>2</m:mn>
      </m:msup>
      <m:mi>n</m:mi>
    </m:mfrac>
  </m:mfenced>
</m:math>
<m:math><m:semantics><m:mrow><m:mstyle fontsize="12pt"><m:mrow><m:msup><m:mrow/><m:mstyle fontsize="8pt"><m:mrow><m:mn/></m:mrow></m:mstyle></m:msup></m:mrow></m:mstyle><m:mrow/></m:mrow><m:annotation encoding="StarMath 5.0"> </m:annotation></m:semantics></m:math> and 
<m:math> <m:mi>Σ</m:mi><m:semantics><m:mrow><m:mstyle fontsize="12pt"><m:mrow><m:mi>X</m:mi></m:mrow></m:mstyle><m:mrow/></m:mrow><m:annotation encoding="StarMath 5.0"> size 12{X} {}</m:annotation></m:semantics></m:math> ∼  
<m:math><m:mi>N</m:mi>
  <m:mfenced>
    <m:mi>nμ</m:mi>
    <m:mi>n</m:mi>
    <m:msup>
      <m:mi>σ</m:mi>
      <m:mn>2</m:mn>
    </m:msup>
  </m:mfenced></m:math>. In words, if the size n of the sample is sufficiently large, then the distribution of the sample means and the distribution of the sample sums will approximate a normal distribution regardless of the shape of the population. And even more, the mean of the sampling distribution will equal the population mean and mean of sampling sums will equal n times the population mean. The standard deviation of the distribution of the sample means, 
<m:math> <m:mfrac>
    <m:mi>σ</m:mi>
    <m:msqrt>
      <m:mi>n</m:mi>
    </m:msqrt>
  </m:mfrac></m:math>, is called standard error of the mean.
    </meaning>
  </definition>

</glossary>
</document>
