Interval Estimate

Interval estimates aim at estimating a parameter using a range of values rather than a single number. For example, the proportion of people who voted for a particular candidate is estimated to be 43% with a margin of error of three (3.0) percentage points based on a political poll. From this information, an interval estimate for the true proportion of voters who favored the candidate would then consist of all the values ranging from a low of 40% to a high of 46%—which is usually presented as (0.40, 0.46). If the interval estimate is derived using the probability distribution of the point estimate, then the interval estimate is often referred to as a “confidence interval” where the “confidence coefficient” quantifies the probability that the process ...