A group of medical researchers is interested in knowing the mean ...

[s.tung]

A group of medical researchers is interested in knowing the mean cholesterol level for all men in the U.S. aged between 70 and 80. They pick a sample of 5,000 men and measure their cholesterol levels.
 
  They then calculate the mean and standard deviation of these cholesterol levels. Do the mean and standard deviation obtained in this way represent parameters or statistics? Why? What symbols could you use to denote the mean and standard deviation of the 5,000 cholesterol levels?

Question 2

Explain in your own words the difference between a parameter and a statistic. Give examples of two statistics and two parameters.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[joanwhite]

Answer to Question 1

The mean and standard deviation represent statistics since they are descriptive measures for a sample. They are denoted by and s, respectively.

Answer to Question 2

A parameter is a descriptive measure for a population while a statistic is a descriptive measure for a sample. ,  and N are parameters whereas , s and n are statistics.

[s.tung]

Excellent

[cam1229]

TYSM