Let us suppose that two independent random samples of sizes and has been drawn from the same normal population then degree of freedom of statistic t-distribution is:
Let us suppose that two independent random samples of sizes and has been drawn from the same normal population then degree of freedom of statistic t-distribution is:
Solution
Two independent random samples of sizes and have been drawn from the same normal population.
The total number of observations is .
When comparing two samples using a t-test, we estimate two parameters from the data:
- The mean of the first sample
- The mean of the second sample
Each estimated parameter reduces the degrees of freedom by 1.
Since we estimate 2 parameters (two sample means), we lose 2 degrees of freedom.
Degrees of freedom
When a mean is calculated from a sample, one degree of freedom is used. For example, if 5 numbers must average to 10, once 4 numbers are known, the 5th is automatically determined.
Since two means are calculated (one for each sample), 2 degrees of freedom are lost.
Therefore, the degrees of freedom for the t-statistic is .
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