No σ for you!

[Nihotte(lma)]

(11-21-2024 03:51 PM)naddy Wrote:  Is there a background story to this?

Hi naddy,

My idea as an enlightened layman is that HP calculators were first aimed at knowledgeable professionals.
Quite simply, we did not choose an HP calculator by chance.
In my opinion, in practice, it is rather rare to encounter an exhaustive population during a statistical survey of data.
We are talking more about a survey.
For my part, I have always effectively found explicit information on this subject concerning the result provided by the calculator.
(for example, the standard deviation chapters of the HP 11C and HP 15C manuals).

Unless I am mistaken, at the same time, the TI 57 and probably the TI58 and TI59 had the same approach.

I confirm that very early on I had a rho(n) and rho(n-1) statistical function on my Casio calculators (see FX-602P and even earlier).
It was more disturbing than anything else, when used in class at the time!
(Indeed, the explanation and distinction between the 2 functions in the manual was contained in a simple sentence
as to the exhaustiveness or not of the statistical population!!)

Keep yourself healthy

Laurent


EDIT : 11/25/2024 - Sorry for my mistake in transcribing the name of the letter because it is not, of course, the lowercase letter rhô but the lowercase Greek letter sigma, which is much more consistent (σ / Σ).
And Above, I mean a "sample" as opposed to an "entire population" by giving the word survey.