Sample Size and the Sampling Distribution of Means

This applet allows exploration of the effect of sample size on the sampling distributions of means.

Instructions

  1. Use the menus above the two bottom graphs to select sample sizes to be compared.
  2. Click on the "1 Sample" button to see each new sample added to the graph. After you understand the process, click on the "1000 Samples" button to add 1000 samples to each graph. Do this many times to build a complete sampling distribution for the mean.
  3. Click on the "Toggle Normal" button to turn a display of the normal distribution on or off.
  4. Clicking on a graph pops it up in a separate window. This faciliates comparisons among the graphs. For exampe, clicking on the two bottom graphs allows you to align them in a vertical stack to see the differences in their spreads.
  5. In one of your explorations, select a sample size of 1. Compare the distribution of the "mean" of one observation to the population distribution.