Law of large numbers

The mean of a random sample approaches the mean (expected value) of the population as sample size increases.

Law of Large Numbers

A mathematical theory that states that the statistical likelihood of a sample having a certain value approaches the statistical likelihood of the whole universe of samples as the sample becomes larger. For example, this is the reason political polls tend to be more accurate the larger they are. This is also called Bernoulli's Law.

law of large numbers

the law that states that large groups tend to behave more uniformly than a single individual. For example, an individual consumer might buy more of a product the price of which has risen, whereas most consumers would buy less. See DEMAND CURVE.

Collins Dictionary of Economics, 4th ed. © C. Pass, B. Lowes, L. Davies 2005

Mentioned in

Central Limit Theorem

References in periodicals archive

Yang, "Strong law of large numbers for Markov chains indexed by an infinite tree with uniformly bounded degree," Science in China A, vol.

Strong law of large numbers for countable Markov chains indexed by an infinite tree with uniformly bounded degree

Sung, "On the strong law of large numbers for pairwise i.i.d.

On the strong convergence and complete convergence for pairwise NQD random variables

Media visuals seem to be a potential intersection of vividness, as defined by Nisbett and Ross (1980), and the Law of Large Numbers, as defined by Baesler and Burgoon (1994).

But is a picture worth a thousand people? Effects of pictorial vividness and numeric representation on attitudes toward the China-Tibet issue

They don't happen often enough for the law of large numbers to work.

Managing catastrophic risk: getting beyond the insurance crisis; The incidence of catastrophic risk has increased markedly, and insurance rates have risen with it. Some companies are re-examining the issue of self-insurance or even doing without and using their equity base to cover potential risks

It is this Law of Large Numbers that generates the classical world of appearance, as zillions are invariably involved.

What's the probability of evolution?

For the first question, 81 of the 108 participants (75%) correctly answered that all choices were equally likely while only 15 participants (13.9%) correctly answered that three tails in five flips is more likely than 3000 tails in 5000 flips for question three (Q3) concerning the law of large numbers.

Stochastic misconceptions of pre-service teachers

In other words, this particular study did not allow students to use or experience the "law of large numbers," the idea that as the number of experiments increases the expected values estimated from the game approaches the true or theoretical values.

The persuasiveness of computer-based simulations on students' probabilistic misconceptions

The law of large numbers makes it a certainty that a very small handful of the college's 800 plus employees will be involved in local politics of all shades of opinions.

College has no political influence

There is also the law of large numbers to think about.

Rules of the Game

The "law of large numbers," a basic statistical rule, tells us that as sample size increases (that is, the number of comparables that are combined to derive a final value estimate), then random error will be averaged away.

Thinking Statistically About Valuations