THEORY OF STATISTICS.
were discussed very fully for the case of attributes (Chap. XIII
§ 8), and we would refer the student to the discussion then given.
ere it is sufficient to state the assumptions briefly, using the
etters (a), (6) and (c) to denote the corresponding assumption
indicated by the same letters in the section cited.
(a) We assume that we are drawing from precisely the same
record throughout the experiment, so that the chance of drawin
a card with any given value of X, or a value within any assigned
limits, is the same at each sampling.
(6) We assume not only that we are drawing from the same
record throughout, but that each of our cards at each drawin
ay be regarded quite strictly as drawn from the same record (or
rom identically similar records): e.g. if our card-record is con-
ained in a series of bundles, we must not make it a practice to
ake the first card from bundle number 1, the second card from
undle number 2, and so on, or else the chance of drawing
card with a given value of X, or a value within assigned limits
may not be the same for each individual card at each drawing.
(c) We assume that the drawing of each card is entirely
independent of that of every other, so that the value of X recorde
on card 1, at each drawing, is uncorrelated with the value of
recorded on card 2, 3, 4, and so on. It is for this reason that w
spoke of the record, in § 1, as containing a practically infinit
umber of cards, for otherwise the successive drawings at each
sampling would not be independent: if the bag contain te
ickets only, bearing the numbers 1 to 10, and we draw the car
bearing 1, the average of the following cards drawn will be higher
han the mean of all cards drawn ; if, on the other hand, we dra
he 10, the average of the following cards will be lower than the mea
f all cards—.e. there will be a negative correlation between th
umber on the card taken at any one drawing and the card taken
at any other drawing. Without making the number of cards i
he bag indefinitely large, we can, as already pointed out for th
ase of attributes (Chap. XIII. § 3), eliminate this correlation b
replacing each card before drawing the next.
Sampling conducted under these conditions we shall, as before
speak of as simple sampling. We do not, it should be noticed
make the further assumption that the sample is unbiassed, 7.e.
hat the chance of inclusion in the sample is independent of the
value of X recorded on the card (cf. the last paragraph in § 8,
hap. XIII, and the discussion in §§ 4-8, Chap. XIV.). This
assumption is unnecessary. If it be true, the interpretation o
our results becomes simpler and more straightforward, for we
can substitute for such phrases as ‘the standard-deviation of
'n a very large sample,” “the form of the frequency-distributio
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