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Mathematica 7.0 - Wrong Documentation on StudentTCI

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg105094] Mathematica 7.0 - Wrong Documentation on StudentTCI
• From: Lawrence Teo <lawrenceteo at yahoo.com>
• Date: Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:41:47 -0500 (EST)

Hi all,

Summary: StudentTCI function's second parameter expects standard
error, rather than standard deviation as stated in the document. The
document has an error.

I just want to report an error in the documentation of StudentTCI
function in Mathematica 7.0.

The document for StudentTCI function reads
StudentTCI[Mu,Sigma, df] gives a confidence interval {min, max} for
the population mean based on the sample mean Mu and sample standard
deviation Sigma.
(refer to HypothesisTesting/ref/StudentTCI)

The truth is StudentTCI function expects Standard Error in the second
parameter, rather than a Standard Deviation.

I was driven crazy by the funny behavior of StudentTCI function for
hours. To make things worse, I didn't suspect it at all and were busy
looking for other mistakes in a rather complex code. I found it in
HypothesisTesting/tutorial/HypothesisTesting. The documentation is
slightly different and clearly points out the second parameter is a
standard error. It was a great relief to me after knowing this
document mistake.

Hope it helps the rest of the Mathematica users.

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Mathematica 7.0 - Wrong Documentation on StudentTCI
    • From: Darren Glosemeyer <darreng@wolfram.com>