Question

1. Preliminaries Remember the setup: We (the RAF in World War II) want to know the number of warplanes fielded by the Germans. That number is N. The warplanes have serial numbers from 1 to N, so N is also equal to the largest serial number on any of the warplanes. We only see a small number of serial numbers (assumed to be a random sample with replacement from among all the serial numbers), so we have to use estimation. Question 1.1 Is N a population parameter or a statistic? If we compute a number using our random sample that's an estimate of N, is that a population parameter or a statistic?

Answer 1

N is a population parameter; the computation using an estimate of N is a statistic.

Explanation:

A parameter is a measure of a population. The number of warplanes fielded total is N; this makes it the population. Thus N is a parameter.

A statistics is a measure of a sample. The number computed using an estimate of N would be based on a sample, since it is an estimate of N; this makes it a statistic.