Concerning inference on two independent population means, the pooled variance estimate is:
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a way of estimating variance that relies on the information provided by only one of the samples.
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an unbiased estimator of the parameter\(\style{font-family:Times New Roman;}{\sigma_1^2-\sigma_2^2}\).
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a combined (using a weighted average) estimate for the unknown variance of two populations.
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a less efficient but easier way of estimating population variances as compared to using two separate variance estimates (one for each population).