Re: st: Explaining the Use of Inferential Statistics Even Though I Have Population Data

[Salima Bouayad Agha <Salima.Bouayad-Agha@univ-lemans.fr>]

Well, even if is not really a stata question, I Think that the  
question of your reviewer is not obvious.
In statistics a sample can effectively be a part of the population,  
and it is the most useful and current way to talk about of a sample,  
but in mathematical statistical course students also learn that a  
sample can be just the population a one specific moment of time and  
that this population can be very different if something else (random  
phenomenon) happens. Think for example of time series or some  
staistical process, let for example talk about the population of  
computers produced by a firm. So I'm not sure that your answer is the  
best one, depending on which field of research you are working. Just  
take a few moment to review some theoretical books on xaht is a sample  
in statistics.

Salima

PS :
In mathematical terms, given a random variable X with distribution F,  
a sample of length n\in\mathbb{N} is a set of n independent,  
identically distributed (iid) random variables with distribution F. It  
concretely represents n experiments in which we measure the same  
quantity. For example, if X represents the height of an individual and  
we measure n individuals, Xi will be the height of the i-th  
individual. Note that a sample of random variables (i.e. a set of  
measurable functions) must not be confused with the realisations of  
these variables (which are the values that these random variables  
take). In other words, Xi is a function representing the mesure at the  
i-th experiment and xi = Xi(?) is the value we actually get when  
making the measure.




*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/