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Interactive animation |
t distribution
If X ~ N(µ,
²)
is a standard normal random variable, the sample mean
of n-observation
samples is also normally distributed
* with mean µ,
* and variance
²/n.
~ N(µ,
²/n)
The standardized variable

is the departure of the sample mean from the true distribution mean, standardized by its own distribution's standard deviation used as "unit length".
z is normal with mean 0 and unit variance
z ~ N(0, 1)
Therefore, if the variance
²
of a normal distribution is known, the sample mean is transformed
into a standard normal variable in a very simple way.
Now what if the variance
²
is unknown (as is usually the case)
? In the expression of z, replace
²
by its unbiased estimate

to obtain the so-called T statistic. If we denote

then

very much like before.
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Unfortunately, S is now a random variable that prevents the distribution of T from being standard normal. What is the distribution of T ?
This distribution is known as "Student's t distribution", or simply "t distribution".
It depends on n, which is therefore a parameter of the distribution. The distribution of T (for n-observation samples) is called the "t distribution with (n - 1) degrees of freedom", and is denoted tn-1:
T ~ tn-1
(The reason why the number of degrees of freedom is n - 1 and not n is given here).
The following interactive animation illustrates the t distribution.
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Upper frame
Middle display
Lower frame
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We'll show that the pdf of the t distribution with n degrees of freedom is :
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* We'll show that if n = 1, the t distribution reduces to the Cauchy distribution, as illustrated in the above animation.
* We'll show that as n tends to infinity, fn(x) converges to the pdf of the standard normal distribution N(0, 1) (see animation).
This last result is also obtained here
by a completely different method, as an application of Slutsky's theorem.
As the Cauchy distribution has no mean, the t distribution has no mean for n = 1.
Note that the pdf of the t distribution is
even. So the mean of the t distribution is 0 for n
2.
We'll show that when it exists, the variance of the t distribution is :
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Note that :
1) The variance does not exist for n = 1, 2.
2) It tends to 1 from above as n grows without limit.
We show here that if the r.v. T is distributed as tm , then T ² is distributed as F1, m .
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The key point about the t distribution is that it does not depend on the variance σ² of the original normal distribution. This point is made clear below.
The T statistic is therefore a pivotal quantity, from which it is possible to devise :
We show that under the standard assumptions of Simple Linear Regression, the coefficients (slope and intercept) of the Least Squares Line are both normally distributed. But, contrary to what we assumed when we defined the T statistic, not only are the variances of these normal distributions unknown, but their means are also unknown and have to be estimated. So, for either the slope or the intercept, the distribution of the standardized coefficient now involves the estimation of two parameters instead of just one.
As a consequence, it can be shown that the standardized coefficients are distributed as tn - 2, and this is the distribution that has to be taken into account when elaborating confidence intervals and tests for the regression coefficients.
This result is difficult, and is not demonstrated, but it should come as no surprise that estimating two parameters instead of one leads to losing two degrees of freedom instead of one.
For just a little bit more on "losing degrees of freedom",
please see here.
This Tutorial bears on the Chi-square distribution, but we show below that the
t distribution is intimately linked to the Chi-square distribution.
We can now elaborate a more general formal definition
of the t distribution. Take the expression for T, and divide
both the numerator and the denominator by
,
the true standard deviation:

1) The new numerator of T is

which is N(0, 1).
2) The new denominator of T can be written:

But the term

is
n-1
(see here).
The denominator under the radical is n - 1, that is just the number of degrees of freedom of the numerator.
3) The numerator and denominator of T are independent random variables. If we write T under its original form:

* The numerator is normally distributed,
* with estimated standard deviation S.
and these quantities are known to be independent.
4) Note that T is now identified as the ratio of two independent variables, the distributions of which do not depend on the variance σ² of the original normal distribution. Therefore, we do not even need to calculate the distribution of T to assert that this distribution does not depend on σ².
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The formal definition of the t distribution is therefore:
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By definition, the T random variable has a tn distribution with n degrees of freedom if:
where: * U ~ N(0, 1), * X ~ * U and X are independent. |
This definition makes no reference to the original problem that led to the identification of the t distribution. It can therefore be used in a more general context.
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Tutorial 1 |
In this Tutorial, we calculate the probability density function of the t distribution. Note that we also calculate this function here by considering a T variable as the ratio of two independent random variables.
We then examine the two extreme cases n = 1 and n tending to infinity.
* We show that t1 is just the Cauchy distribution.
* We then show that as n tends to infinity, the pdf of Student's t distribution tends to the pdf of the standard normal distribution (a result also established here by resorting to Slutsky's theorem).
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We conclude by noting that although the number of degrees of freedom of the t distribution is by nature an integer, nothing precludes its mathematical form to accommodate non-integer degrees of freedom. This turn out to be useful for calculating approximate confidence intervals for the difference of two sample means when the variances of the normal distributions are not assumed to be equal (Welch's approximation).
PROBABILITY DENSITY FUNCTION OF THE t DISTRIBUTION
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Probability density function of the t distribution General outline of the demonstration Definition of the t distribution The joint pdf of U and X The distribution function of the t distribution The pdf of T The structure of F(t ) Differentiating F(t ) Special cases n = 1 : Cauchy distribution n infinite : normal distribution Limit of the functional part Limit of the normalization coefficient The standard normal distribution Non-integer number of "degrees of freedom" : Welch's approximation |
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TUTORIAL |
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Tutorial 2 |
The expression of the variance of Tn, a r.v. following Student's t distribution with n degrees of freedom
Var(Tn ) = n / (n - 2)
is simple enough, but obtaining this result is no easy business and deserves a Tutorial of its own.
We'll give two demonstrations :
1) The first one uses the direct approach :

where fn(x) is the pdf of the t distribution (recall that the expectation of Tn is 0 and that its variance is therefore the same as its second order moment).
Although direct, this approach is by no means straightforward and will lead us to explore the interesting properties of a family of integrals known as Wallis integrals.
The study of Wallis integrals is further pursued here
and culminates with the "Wallis formula", a key ingredient of the
demonstration of Stirling's formula.
2) The second approach is less direct, but ultimately simpler. It considers a Tn random variable as a function of two r.v. (as given by the formal distribution of the t distribution), and then calls on the bivariate version of the LOTUS theorem for calculating the expectation of Tn².
VARIANCE OF THE t DISTRIBUTION
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First method : direct calculation Splitting the integral Change of variable and Wallis integrals Recursion equation of Wallis' integrals Value of Wallis' integral n even n odd The normalisation coefficient The variance Second method : by LOTUS theorem |
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TUTORIAL |
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Related readings :
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Interval estimation |
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t-test |
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T as the ratio of two random variables |
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The square of a Student's Tn is a Fisher's F1, n |
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Normal distribution |
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Cauchy distribution |
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Wallis formula |