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Wyzant
wyzant.com › resources › ask an expert
p bar sample stat | Wyzant Ask An Expert
November 14, 2020 - Statistics · Kimberly M. asked • 11/14/20 · You are testing the claim that the proportion of men who own cats is significantly different than the proportion of women who own cats.You sample 50 men, and 85% own cats.You sample 90 women, and 55% own cats. Find ¯p (p-bar), as a decimal, rounded to two decimal places.
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Richland College
people.richland.edu › james › lecture › m170 › ch10-pro.html
Stats: Two Proportions
We will also be computing an average proportion and calling it p-bar. It is the total number of successes divided by the total number of trials. The definitions which are necessary are shown to the right. The test statistic has the same general pattern as before (observed minus expected divided ...
Discussions

[Q] Why do we use x̄ as the symbol for sample mean?
bar is generally used to denote means, but why because someone did it that way, presumably because it seemed like a good idea at the time, and then other people followed suit, as with almost any notational convention. m was often used for means of both distributions and of samples across a wide range of time; it's "re-invented" regularly. I always assumed the bar came from physics. The use of a bar over small x is discussed here: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Miller/mathsym/stat/ (or see the older version of the page here http://www.math.hawaii.edu/~tom/history/stat.html ) ... scroll about 3/4 of the way down, to the section headed SYMBOLS IN STATISTICS and look at paragraph 2. It looks like it did indeed come from physics. Why are there competing conventions, anyways? Because people keep ignoring existing conventions in favor of ones they like for one reason or another (sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes with a pedagogical motive, sometimes to avoid a clash with some other convention, etc). Standards always multiply. Just recently (i.e. in the last few decades) it happened when ML people started adopting a lot of statistical methods and redefined all the terms and symbols (sometimes to match their own pre-existing terms, sometimes out of ignorance that there was already a good term/notation, sometimes for other reasons). Sadly, some of those conventions cause serious issues (like calling a regression coefficient a weight, leading to a serious clash when you need to talk about weighted regression). More on reddit.com
🌐 r/statistics
5
4
April 7, 2022
Does "bar" and "hat" mean the same thing?
As Nate said, bars are averages, hats are estimates. If the population mean is mu, and the samples are x_i, then you may reasonably refer to the sample mean either as mu-hat or as x-bar. NOT mu-bar (we aren't averaging a bunch of population means) nor as x-hat (we are observing xes not estimating them.) More on reddit.com
🌐 r/statistics
11
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January 11, 2018
Need help..P values on bar graph on SPSS
Those p values come from t-tests. You'll need to run separate t-tests in SPSS then, using the M, SD, and p values from SPSS, you can create graphs like this in excel or some other graphing software. SPSS doesn't format it exactly as shown. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/statistics
2
1
January 5, 2014
[Statistics] Difference between Central Limit Theorem for p-hat vs. x̄?
CLT says the distribution of a random variable is roughly normally distributed, if some conditions are met. p-hat is an estimate for a population proportion p. x-bar is an estimate for a population mean µ. The CLT says the distribution of p-hats is roughly normally distributed with certain parameters, and likewise says that the distribution of x-bars is also normally distributed with certain parameters. In a problem, if it talks about estimating a population proportion, you need to use CLT for p-hat, and if it talks about estimation a population mean, you need to use CLT for x-bar. It sounds like you should spend some time reading your text book, and do some practice problems. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/learnmath
2
5
October 5, 2017
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Quora
quora.com › What-is-the-difference-between-p-and-P-hat-in-statistics
What is the difference between p and P (hat) in statistics? - Quora
Answer (1 of 7): In a binomial process, p is considered to be the exact probability of an event happening on a given trial. Ironically, if you run only one trial p hat is destined to be 1 if the event happens, and 0 if it does not.
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Sjsu
www2.sjsu.edu › faculty › gerstman › StatPrimer › conf-prop.htm
Inference for a Proportion
The normal approximation to the binomial can be justified on the basis of the central limit theorem, while p^ can be shown to be the mean of a sample of zeros and ones (i.e., X = 0 for "failures" and X = 1 for "success").
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Homework.Study.com
homework.study.com › explanation › what-must-be-true-so-that-the-sampling-distribution-of-p-bar-follows-the-normal-distribution.html
What must be true so that the sampling distribution of p-bar follows the normal distribution? | Homework.Study.com
Statistics and Probability · Sampling distribution · What must be true so that the sampling distribution of p-bar follows the normal distribution? A sample proportion is determined by collecting random subjects from the population and then recording subjects' counts with desired successes (as defined in the study).
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RDocumentation
rdocumentation.org › packages › ggQC › versions › 0.0.31 › topics › pBar
pBar Mean Proportion: Binomial Data (p-chart)
Calculates overall mean proportion for binomial proportion data acquired over a variable area of opportunity.
Find elsewhere
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Stat Trek
stattrek.com › estimation › confidence-interval-proportion
Confidence Interval: Proportion
This lesson describes how to construct a confidence interval for a sample proportion, p, when the sample size is large.
Published   January 31, 2025
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Minitab
support.minitab.com › en-us › minitab › help-and-how-to › probability-distributions-random-data-and-resampling-analyses › how-to › randomization-test-for-1-sample-proportion › interpret-the-results › all-statistics-and-graphs
All statistics and graphs for Randomization test for 1-sample proportion - Minitab
In this histogram, the bootstrap distribution appears to be normal. The p-value of 0.002 indicates that 0.2% of the sample proportions are greater than the proportion of the original sample. The bar chart shows the proportion of occurrences for each category.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › P-chart
p-chart - Wikipedia
November 15, 2025 - In statistical quality control, the p-chart is a type of control chart used to monitor the proportion of nonconforming units in a sample, where the sample proportion nonconforming is defined as the ratio of the number of nonconforming units ...
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BrownMath
brownmath.com › swt › symbol.htm
Stats without Tears Statistics Symbol Sheet
SEP = standard error of the proportion (symbol is σp̂). Defined here in Chapter 8. X (capital X) = a variable. x (lower-case x) = one data value (“raw score”). As a column heading, x means a series of data values. x̅ “x-bar” = mean of a sample.
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Statistics By Jim
statisticsbyjim.com › home › blog › sample mean vs population mean: symbol & formulas
Sample Mean vs Population Mean: Symbol & Formulas - Statistics By Jim
December 13, 2024 - In short, sum all values in the population and divide by the number of values in the population. Easier said than done in most cases! Conversely, calculate the sample mean using the following formula, represented by the x̅ (x bar) symbol.
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Statistics LibreTexts
stats.libretexts.org › bookshelves › introductory statistics › introductory statistics (shafer and zhang) › 6: sampling distributions
6.3: The Sample Proportion - Statistics LibreTexts
March 27, 2023 - Thus the population proportion \(p\) is the same as the mean \(μ\) of the corresponding population of zeros and ones. In the same way the sample proportion \(\hat{p}\) is the same as the sample mean \(\bar{x}\). Thus the Central Limit Theorem applies to \(\hat{p}\).
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Reddit
reddit.com › r/statistics › [q] why do we use x̄ as the symbol for sample mean?
r/statistics on Reddit: [Q] Why do we use x̄ as the symbol for sample mean?
April 7, 2022 -

Perhaps more of a meta-statistics question than a statistics question, but I've been trying to understand the origins of the conventional symbols used in statistics and can't find any good sources. The two most common ways to distinguish a parameter from an estimator seem to be either using roughly equivalent Greek and Latin characters or hat. I've seen both 'π' and 'p' used to represent population proportions (though 'p' is definitely more common in introductory courses) and I've seen 'π' used often as a function in Bayesian statistics. Hat seems to be the preferred method of denoting an estimator for any new methods/unestablished/'non-canonical' statistics. Both 's' and 'σ' make a lot of sense, and 'μ' makes sense for population means, so where on earth did 'x̄' come from? Was 'm' already being used elsewhere? Did it come about before these conventions were established? I'm aware the 'X' is the goto for random variables and bar is generally used to denote means, but why? Why are there competing conventions, anyways?

Top answer
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bar is generally used to denote means, but why because someone did it that way, presumably because it seemed like a good idea at the time, and then other people followed suit, as with almost any notational convention. m was often used for means of both distributions and of samples across a wide range of time; it's "re-invented" regularly. I always assumed the bar came from physics. The use of a bar over small x is discussed here: https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Miller/mathsym/stat/ (or see the older version of the page here http://www.math.hawaii.edu/~tom/history/stat.html ) ... scroll about 3/4 of the way down, to the section headed SYMBOLS IN STATISTICS and look at paragraph 2. It looks like it did indeed come from physics. Why are there competing conventions, anyways? Because people keep ignoring existing conventions in favor of ones they like for one reason or another (sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes with a pedagogical motive, sometimes to avoid a clash with some other convention, etc). Standards always multiply. Just recently (i.e. in the last few decades) it happened when ML people started adopting a lot of statistical methods and redefined all the terms and symbols (sometimes to match their own pre-existing terms, sometimes out of ignorance that there was already a good term/notation, sometimes for other reasons). Sadly, some of those conventions cause serious issues (like calling a regression coefficient a weight, leading to a serious clash when you need to talk about weighted regression).
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I don't have many answers in terms of why notation differs, but X is often written as a vector of random variables (in mathematical statistics at least). I think it makes sense then that x_bar is a commonly used notation to denote the mean of that vector because μ is already used to describe the population mean e.g. X_1...X_n Where X_i ~ N(μ, σ). edit: rereading your post again, I guess my question is: "what would be a more readable notation than x̄ is the mean of X?" I suppose you could use μ_X or something but then it's not explicit that this mean should differ from the population μ.
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Omni Calculator
omnicalculator.com › statistics › p-value
p-value Calculator
January 20, 2016 - Welcome to our p-value calculator! You will never again have to wonder how to find the p-value, as here you can determine the one-sided and two-sided p-values from test statistics, following all the most popular distributions: normal, t-Student, chi-squared, and Snedecor's F.
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Indeed
indeed.com › career-advice › career-development › p-value
How To Calculate P-Value in 3 Steps (With an Example) | Indeed.com
6 days ago - A woman works on a pad of paper and a calculator next to a list with the heading "How To Calculate the Probability Value" and this information:• State the null and alternative bhypothesis in detailTest statistic = (sample mean - sample size) / (standard deviation / sample size)• Useat-distribution table to get the probability value for the linked variableFinding the significance of a data sample is an important tool for statisticians, data analysts and other data scientists.
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JMP
jmp.com › en › statistics-knowledge-portal › what-is-correlation › correlation-coefficient
Correlation Coefficient | Introduction to Statistics
Remember, we are really looking at individual points in time, and each time has a value for both sales and temperature. ... Now that we’re oriented to our data, we can start with two important subcalculations from the formula above: the sample mean, and the difference between each datapoint and this mean (in these steps, you can also see the initial building blocks of standard deviation). The sample means are represented with the symbols x̅ and y̅, sometimes called “x bar...
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R Tutor
r-tutor.com › elementary-statistics › hypothesis-testing › two-tailed-test-population-proportion
Two-Tailed Test of Population Proportion | R Tutorial
> pbar = 12/20 # sample proportion > p0 = .5 # hypothesized value > n = 20 # sample size > z = (pbar−p0)/sqrt(p0∗(1−p0)/n) > z # test statistic [1] 0.89443
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ProPrep
proprep.com › questions › in-statistics-what-is-phat-and-how-is-it-used-in-estimating-proportions
In statistics, what is p-hat, and how is it used in estimating proportions?
Stuck on a STEM question? Post your question and get video answers from professional experts: In statistics, $\hat{p}$, commonly referred to as p-hat, is the...