(statistics) Given a random sample mathbf x₁,…, mathbf x_N from an n-dimensional random variable mathbf X, a mean defined as

(statistics) A sample randomly taken from an investigated population.

plural of sample function

(metalworking) A sample taken for assay from a molten metallic mass by pouring a portion into water to granulate it.

(statistics) Any set of possible values to which the appropriate random variables determined by a stochastic process might map a given point in the sample space, taken over all values of the index space (often regarded as time).

plural of sample path

(sociology, statistics) A nonprobability sampling technique where existing study subjects recruit future subjects from among their acquaintances.

A technique used to sample benthic invertebrates in a stream, etc., where a net is held underwater and the surrounding substrate disturbed by kicking.

plural of rejection sampling

(computational statistics, numerical analysis) A technique used to generate observations from a distribution by repeatedly sampling an approximation function that bounds the distribution everywhere from above and rejecting the samples based on the quotient of the two functions at the sample's location.