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The funny thing about sample sizes is that they don't scale with population size. [Edited the part where I said they don't scale "much"... they don't scale.]
by tomkarlo 16y ago
The funny thing about sample sizes is that they don't scale with population size. [Edited the part where I said they don't scale "much"... they don't scale.]
If you're studying a phenomena with less than 5% impact, you need 1000+ data points to reach 95% significance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_hypothesis_testing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_hypothesis_testing
[Fixed link, deleted my incorrect comment.]
- jessriedel 16y agoLooks like we just replied to nostrademons at the same time, but we slightly disagree. You say that the dependence on population size is slow (sqrt) but I say there is no dependence for most cases. Are you sure you aren't confusing the dependence of confidence on sample size as opposed to population size? See, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_significance#Signal.E2.80.93noise_ratio_conceptualisation_of_significance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_significance#Signal... I could be making a mistake somewhere.
- tomkarlo 16y agoNo, you're right. I edited my comment.