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Estimate

An estimate is an educated guess for an unknown quantity or outcome based on known information. The making of estimates is an important part of statistics, since care is needed to provide as accurate an estimate as possible using as little input data as possible. Often, an estimate for the uncertainty $\Delta E$ of an estimate $E$ can also be determined statistically. A rule that tells how to calculate an estimate based on the measurements contained in a sample is called an Estimator.

See also Bias (Estimator), Error, Estimator


References

Iyanaga, S. and Kawada, Y. (Eds.). ``Statistical Estimation and Statistical Hypothesis Testing.'' Appendix A, Table 23 in Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mathematics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 1486-1489, 1980.




© 1996-9 Eric W. Weisstein
1999-05-25