Analyzing the Setup
We begin with a set of seven observations: x1,x2,x3,x4,x5,6,8. We are given the mean xˉ=8 and the variance σ2=16.
The mean provides the total sum of the observations. For
n=7, the sum is:
i=1∑7xi=7×8=56
Since two observations are
6 and
8, the sum of the remaining five unknowns is:
i=1∑5xi=56−(6+8)=56−14=42
The Power of Squares
To find the variance of the subset, we must first determine the sum of the squares of all seven observations. We use the standard variance formula:
σ2=n∑xi2−(xˉ)2
Rearranging this to solve for the sum of squares, we get:
i=1∑7xi2=n(σ2+(xˉ)2)
Substituting our known values:
i=1∑7xi2=7(16+82)=7(16+64)=7(80)=560
Now, we subtract the squares of the two removed observations (
6 and
8) to isolate the sum of squares for the remaining five:
i=1∑5xi2=560−(62+82)=560−(36+64)=560−100=460
Final Calculation
We now calculate the new variance
σnew2 for the five remaining observations using the sum and the sum of squares derived above:
σnew2=5∑i=15xi2−(5∑i=15xi)2
Substituting the values
460 and
42:
σnew2=5460−(542)2
Simplifying the expression:
σnew2=92−251764
Converting to a common denominator:
σnew2=252300−1764=25536
The variance of the remaining five observations is 25536 (or 21.44).