German Tank Problem

German Tank Problem

In the statistical theory of estimation, the problem of estimating the maximum of a discrete uniform distribution from sampling without replacement, is known, in the English-speaking world, as the German tank problem, due to its application in World War II to the estimation of the number of German tanks.

The analyses illustrate the difference between frequentist inference and Bayesian inference.

Estimating the population maximum based on a single sample yields divergent results, while the estimation based on multiple samples is an instructive practical estimation question whose answer is simple but not obvious.

Read more about German Tank Problem:  Example, Historical Problem, Bayesian Analysis

Famous quotes containing the words german and/or problem:

    A German immersed in any civilization different from his own loses a weight equivalent in volume to the amount of intelligence he displaces.
    José Bergamín (1895–1983)

    What had really caused the women’s movement was the additional years of human life. At the turn of the century women’s life expectancy was forty-six; now it was nearly eighty. Our groping sense that we couldn’t live all those years in terms of motherhood alone was “the problem that had no name.” Realizing that it was not some freakish personal fault but our common problem as women had enabled us to take the first steps to change our lives.
    Betty Friedan (20th century)