Question

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of estimating a population parameter (for example like the population mean  μ or a population proportion p) using a point estimate form a sample as opposed to using an interval estimate also based on the sample which is called confidence interval.

Answer 1

Answer:

Disadvantage of estimating a population parameter using a point estimate is that it gives us a single value which is fixed and when it is inaccurate we have no idea of how to correct it.

Advantage of using point estimation is that it gives only one point estimation for the mean, which is makes it easy to make decision based only on the single value

Interval estimate or confidence interval has an advantage over point estimate which is that it allows us to have a range of values for testing the hypothesis and it makes us confident that the estimation have significant chances of falling between the range or interval provided.

Disadvantage with the interval estimate is that its not much accurate as compared to point estimate because it gives us the range for the estimation which sometimes become an error factor.