3 ms·
> statistical error is governed by sqrt(N) Yup. > To halve your error, you've got to square your sample size. Nope. You've got to multiply it by 4. (It's the
by gjm11 10y ago
> statistical error is governed by sqrt(N)
Yup.
> To halve your error, you've got to square your sample size.
Nope. You've got to multiply it by 4. (It's the 2 that gets squared.) The square root of 1/120 is half that of 1/30.
- dredmorbius 10y agoThanks. I was thinking that through. Math is getting too hard ;-) Doubling (and repeatedly doubling) occurs through doubled powers of 2. So halving = 2^2, quartering = 2^4, reduce to 1/8, 2^6. So insteady of n = 30, 60, 120, 240 (initial, halve, quarter, eighth), you end up with 30, 120, 480, 1920.