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Normal Distribution is a key to Statistics. It is a limiting case of Binomial and Poisson distribution also. Central limit theorem converts random variable to normal random variable. Also central limit theorem tells us whether data items from a sample space lies in an interval at 1%, 5%, 10% siginificane level.
It depends whether or not the observations are independent and on the distribution of the variable that is being measured or the sample size. You cannot simply assume that the observations are independent and that the distribution is Gaussian (Normal).
Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of the data. When the standard deviation is greater than the mean, a coefficient of variation is greater than one. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_variation If you assume the data is normally distributed, then the lower limit of the interval of the mean +/- one standard deviation (68% confidence interval) will be a negative value. If it is not realistic to have negative values, then the assumption of a normal distribution may be in error and you should consider other distributions. Common distributions with no negative values are gamma, log normal and exponential.
Short answer, complex. I presume you're in a basic stats class so your dealing with something like a normal distribution however (or something else very standard). You can think of it this way... A confidence interval re-scales margin of likely error into a range. This allows you to say something along the lines, "I can say with 95% confidence that the mean/variance/whatever lies within whatever and whatever" because you're taking into account the likely error in your prediction (as long as the distribution is what you think it is and all stats are what you think they are). This is because, if you know all of the things I listed with absolute certainty, you are able to accurately predict how erroneous your prediction will be. It's because central limit theory allow you to assume statistically relevance of the sample, even given an infinite population of data. The main idea of a confidence interval is to create and interval which is likely to include a population parameter within that interval. Sample data is the source of the confidence interval. You will use your best point estimate which may be the sample mean or the sample proportion, depending on what the problems asks for. Then, you add or subtract the margin of error to get the actual interval. To compute the margin of error, you will always use or calculate a standard deviation. An example is the confidence interval for the mean. The best point estimate for the population mean is the sample mean according to the central limit theorem. So you add and subtract the margin of error from that. Now the margin of error in the case of confidence intervals for the mean is za/2 x Sigma/ Square root of n where a is 1- confidence level. For example, confidence level is 95%, a=1-.95=.05 and a/2 is .025. So we use the z score the corresponds to .025 in each tail of the standard normal distribution. This will be. z=1.96. So if Sigma is the population standard deviation, than Sigma/square root of n is called the standard error of the mean. It is the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of all the means for every possible sample of size n take from your population ( Central limit theorem again). So our confidence interval is the sample mean + or - 1.96 ( Population Standard deviation/ square root of sample size. If we don't know the population standard deviation, we use the sample one but then we must use a t distribution instead of a z one. So we replace the z score with an appropriate t score. In the case of confidence interval for a proportion, we compute and use the standard deviation of the distribution of all the proportions. Once again, the central limit theorem tells us to do this. I will post a link for that theorem. It is the key to really understanding what is going on here!
In the simplest setting, a continuous random variable is one that can assume any value on some interval of the real numbers. For example, a uniform random variable is often defined on the unit interval [0,1], which means that this random variable could assume any value between 0 and 1, including 0 and 1. Some possibilities would be 1/3, 0.3214, pi/4, e/5, and so on ... in other words, any of the numbers in that interval. As another example, a normal random variable can assume any value between -infinity and +infinity (another interval). Most of these values would be extremely unlikely to occur but they would be possible. The random variable could assume values of 3, -10000, pi, 1000*pi, e*e, ... any possible value in the real numbers. It is also possible to define continue random variables that assume values on the entire (x,y) plane, or just on the circumference of a circle, or anywhere that you can imagine that is essentially equivalent (in some sense) to pieces of a real line.
normal interval, MARCH
Double Interval, MARCH
At close interval, MARCH!
Normal interval, close interval, and double interval
Normal interval, close interval, and double interval
Normal Interval
Normal interval, close interval, and double interval
rear march
"Close interval, dress right (or left), dress!"
sierra my delta
Normal Interval
When aligning the squad, the squad commander must use a sequence of commands to convey the desired alignment to the soldiers. To align the squad at the normal interval, the commander uses the terms Dress right, Dress, and Ready front.