Why aren’t statistical results simplified like normal fractions? For example why is 4/10 people used instead of 2/5?

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Why aren’t statistical results simplified like normal fractions? For example why is 4/10 people used instead of 2/5?

In: Mathematics

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

In statistics, the sample size is very important, because it tell you how confident you should be with the results that you got.

Let take the example of asking a class of 100 people about their favorite color. If you managed to survey all 100 people, then you should be very confident in your results. On the other extreme, if you surveyed only one person, then your are not confident at all that your result accurately represent the class. If the number of people surveyed is somewhere in between 1 to 100, then your confidence level is somewhere in between, and confidence level increases as the number of samples increase.

As your sample size increases, you confidence interval narrows, meaning that you have higher confidence that the actual result is in a narrower band around your sample result.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because nearly everyone grows up learning to count in base 10 so it’s easier for them to visualize 0.4 or 40% vs 2/5.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Statistical Power. The larger amount of a sample, the greater chance it has to generalize outside of a lab environment.

Also, it sounds better in most marketing to have more people since it sounds more valid/safe.

Anonymous 0 Comments

People are dumb and it’s easier to understand that 4/10ths is 40% while 2/5ths requires one to think.