Further Stats 1 Chapter 5 ::

Central Limit Theorem

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Last modified: 22nd July 2018

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understanding.
Recap of Adding Random Variables
Suppose that we had a fair three-sided spinner, and span it twice, represented by
random variables , both of which are the same discrete uniform distribution:

1 1

2
3 3

Then would represent the distribution of adding each possible

outcome from with each possible outcome from

𝑝( 𝑦) Already, the shape of the

distribution is vaguely
resembling a well-known
Each combined outcome has a distribution…
probability of 𝑦
23 456
Adding Random Variables

1 1 1

2
3

2
3 3

𝑋1 𝑋2 𝑋3
Let’s now get a sample of 3 values, i.e. spin it 3 times:
𝑝( 𝑦)
That’s looking pretty
damn like a normal
distribution now…

𝑦
3 4567 89
If we divide each of these combined outcomes by 3, then we’d have :

So it appears that the distribution of possible

means of the sample of 3 spins approximately
forms a normal distribution; and becomes more
normal as we increase the number of spinners in
our sample. This will always occur regardless of
what the distribution of the original spinner was
(whether discrete uniform or otherwise), provided
that we’re spinning the same spinner!
Central Limit Theorem
! The central limit theorem says that if is a random sample of size from a population
with mean and variance , then is approximately

Important key understanding points:

• represents the population distribution, i.e. a single choice of something from the population.
• We are generating a sample of size , so we use a distribution to represent the choice of each thing
from the population for the sample, each obviously with the same distribution as the population.
Since each is independent, it means we could technically sample the same value twice (as could
happen with the spinner) but given a large population, would unlikely occur in practice.
• Don’t get confused between the distribution (i.e. a single choice from the population), and (a
distribution over the different sample means we could get as we take different samples).
• The variance of is . This means as we increase the sample size, the variance of the sample means
decreases. This makes sense: with a larger sample size, we expect the sample means to be more
consistent and be closer to the true population mean .

Our distribution for the mean of 3 spinners…

(Using techniques
from Chp1)
1
2

3
Mean of the distribution above is still 2. Standard deviation
of the distribution above is ; this is indeed !
When does CLT apply and when doesn’t it?

If the original population distribution is already normally distributed (e.g. heights

of people), then the sample mean will always be normally distributed, even if the
sample size is small. i.e. is distributed as and the CLT need not be used.

The Central Limit Theorem allows us to say that is approximately normally

distributed, even if the original population distribution is not normally distributed.
However, we require the sample size to be large for the normal distribution to be a
good approximation of .
For example if , then will have the same
distribution as the population!
Example

[Textbook] A sample of size 9 is taken from a population with distribution . Find the
probability the sample mean is more than 11.

Population is normally distributed so is normally distributed despite the

small sample size.

Recall that we typically write a normal

distribution in the form so that the
? standard deviation is clear.

Use your calculator.

Test Your Understanding
[Textbook] A six-sided dice is relabelled so that there are three faces marked 1, two faces
marked 3 and one face marked 6. The dice is rolled 40 times and the mean of the 40 scores
is recorded.
(a) Find an approximation distribution for the mean of the scores.
(b) Use your approximation to estimate the probability that the mean is greater than 3.

Help: The probability distribution of the dice is the population distribution (as it’s what we use to create samples).
Help: Use your Chapter 1 knowledge to find and of this distribution.

Population
distribution.

By the Central Limit Theorem,

?
Exercise 5A
Pearson Further Statistics 1
Pages 78-80
CLT with Poisson, Binomial and Geometric Distribs
[Textbook] A supermarket manager is trying to model the number of customers that visit
her store each day. She observes that, on average, 20 new customers enter the store every
minute.
(a) Calculate the probability that fewer than 15 customers arrive in a given minute.
(b) Find the probability that in one hour no more than 1150 customers arrive.
(c) Use the Central Limit Theorem to estimate the probability that in one hour no more
than 1150 customers arrive. Compare your answer to part b.

a Let denote the number of customers that arrive in a minute. Then .

? (c) is an unusual way of solving
the problem. Using the Stats Year
2 approach, we could use and
b Let denote the number of customers that arrive in an hour. directly use a normal
? approximation , finding

c We could consider each of the 60 minutes as a separate sample. Thus the observed
average customers per minute is
Since , by CLT,
, which is close, so approximation using CLT ?
is a good one.
Test Your Understanding
[Textbook] Billy is the captain of a football team. Each week he gets a team together by
calling his friends one by one and asking if they would like to play. The probability of each
friend agreeing to play is . Once he has 10 other players he stops calling.
(a) Calculate the number of friends Billy expects to have a call to find 10 other players.
(b) Find the probability that Billy has to call exactly 12 friends.
In a season, Billy’s team plays 25 matches.
(c) Estimate the probability that the mean number of calls per match Billy had to make was
less than 15.5.

a Let be the number of friends Billy calls. Then

so ? Recap: If then
and
b
?
and
c For a sample of size 25, the sample mean is approximately
or by the CLT.

?
Exercise 5B
Pearson Further Statistics 1
Pages 81-82