Abstract
WHEN a series of numbers can legitimately be regarded as random samples from a normal distribution, the mean range within small sub-groups, multiplied by a factor depending only on group-size, gives a very good and easily calculated estimate of the standard deviation of the parent distribution, not much inferior in precision to that obtainable from the mean squared deviation1. A specially simple computation is obtained when the sub-group size is two.
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References
Cf. Pearson, Biometrika, 37, 88 (1950).
Kermack and McKendrick, Proc. Roy. Soc., Edin., 57, 228 (1937).
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WOOLF, B. Rapid Estimation of Standard Deviations. Nature 170, 631 (1952). https://doi.org/10.1038/170631a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/170631a0
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