
Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Bessel's correction
Introduction
Overview
Overview
In statistics, Bessel’s correction, named after Friedrich Bessel, is the use of n − 1 instead of n when estimating variance, where n is the number of observations in a sample. n − 1 is used to correct for the fact that samples understate the variance in the population on average. See bias of an estimator.
References
References
- “Use and abuse of statistics” by W.J. Reichmann, 1968 reprint, appendix 8.
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
