The Happiest States In The USA

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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Lazar »

stitch626 wrote:
used the happiness levels of a million individual US citizens to discover which are the best and worst states in which to live in the United States.
So this is a bogus test because that is not a valid sample data.

There are more people than that in New York City.
Huh? When you're doing this kind of research you use a random, representative sample. You can't survey all 300 million people.
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Nutso »

39 Nevada
39? 39??? Whores and gambling are legal! Who wouldn't be happy with whores and gambling?
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Sonic Glitch »

Nutso wrote: 39? 39??? Whores and gambling are legal! Who wouldn't be happy with whores and gambling?
Mormons.
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Deepcrush »

4 Tennessee
Way to hold it down Tennessee!
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by sunnyside »

stitch626 wrote: So this is a bogus test because that is not a valid sample data.

There are more people than that in New York City.
Test validity is an involved field of knowledge, with many methods of analysis.

However, presuming the sample was properly randomized, testing one million people out of three hundred million people is "good", unless you're looking for extremely rare outliers or something like that.
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by stitch626 »

sunnyside wrote:
stitch626 wrote: So this is a bogus test because that is not a valid sample data.

There are more people than that in New York City.
Test validity is an involved field of knowledge, with many methods of analysis.

However, presuming the sample was properly randomized, testing one million people out of three hundred million people is "good", unless you're looking for extremely rare outliers or something like that.
The "proper" sample size is 10% to remove bias. This is only 1%.

Also, does it say how they selected the sample? Whether it was an equal amount per state, or if it was a ratio based on the states population?
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Lt. Staplic »

Oh ya...#31 Iowa...I'm happier than Deep, Mikey, and all the Switzers!
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Lazar »

stitch626 wrote:The "proper" sample size is 10% to remove bias.
That's nonsense. There's no particular minimum sample size that you need to use, it just needs to be selected without systematic error. 10% is a ridiculously huge sample size if you're studying a large population. Even 1% is huge.
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by stitch626 »

Sorry, I made a comment to this, but for some reason it did not post and I don't remember all of what I said. So I'll just drop it.
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Angharrad »

Lt. Staplic wrote:Oh ya...#31 Iowa...I'm happier than Deep, Mikey, and all the Switzers!
I can fix that. :twisted:
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Nickswitz »

Lazar wrote:
stitch626 wrote:The "proper" sample size is 10% to remove bias.
That's nonsense. There's no particular minimum sample size that you need to use, it just needs to be selected without systematic error. 10% is a ridiculously huge sample size if you're studying a large population. Even 1% is huge.
It may be huge, but it's still what I learned in my stats class, 10% at least for a valid test.
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Lazar »

Nickswitz wrote:It may be huge, but it's still what I learned in my stats class, 10% at least for a valid test.
What is the source on this number? Your teacher, or a book? Did they say why?
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Nickswitz »

Lazar wrote:
Nickswitz wrote:It may be huge, but it's still what I learned in my stats class, 10% at least for a valid test.
What is the source on this number? Your teacher, or a book? Did they say why?
Book, and no, I don't remember the reasoning behind it...
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Lt. Staplic »

I rember, vaguely, that a 10% sample size is often recommended in order to get a more accurate sample of the population. the larger numbers will help temper any unusual conglomerations of sub-groups within your sample.
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Re: The Happiest States In The USA

Post by Deepcrush »

Lt. Staplic wrote:Oh ya...#31 Iowa...I'm happier than Deep, Mikey, and all the Switzers!
Deepcrush wrote:
4 Tennessee
Way to hold it down Tennessee!
You think so??? :poke:
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