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336                    Fundamentals of Probability and Statistics for Engineers

                f g
           that E  Y   is a function x. In any single experiment, x will assume a certain
           value x i  and the mean of Y  will take the value
                                     EfY i gˆ   ‡  x i :                …11:2†

             Random variable Y  is, of course, itself a function of x. If we define a random
           variable E by

                                    E ˆ Y  …  ‡  x†;                    …11:3†

           we can write


                                     Y ˆ   ‡  x ‡ E;                    …11:4†

           where E has mean 0 and variance   2 , which is identical to the variance of Y . The
           value of   2  is not known in general but it is assumed to be a constant and not
           a function of x.
             Equation  (11.4) is a  standard  expression  of a simple  linear regression model.


           The unknown parameters    and    are called regression  coefficients, and random
           variable E represents the deviation of Y  about its mean. As with simple models
           discussed in Chapters 9 and 10, simple linear regression analysis is concerned
           with estimation of the regression parameters, the quality of these estimators,
           and model verification on the basis of the sample. We note that, instead of
           a simple sample such as Y 1 , Y 2 ,..., Y n  as in previous cases, our sample in the
           present context takes the form of pairs (x 1 , Y 1 ), (x 2 , Y 2 ), ..., (x n , Y n ). For each
           value x i  assigned  to  x,  Y i  is an independent observation  from population Y
           defined  by Equation  (11.4). Hence,  (x i , Y i ), i ˆ  1, 2,..., n,  may  be  considered
           as a sample from random variable Y  for given values x 1 , x 2 ,...,  and  x n  of x;
           these  x values need not all be distinct but, in order to estimate both    and  ,
           we will see that we must have at least two distinct values of x represented in
           the sample.


           11.1.1  LEAST  SQUARES  METHOD  OF  ESTIMATION

           As one approach to point estimation of regression parameters    and   , the
           method of least squares suggests that their estimates, ^    and   ^ , be chosen so
           that the sum of the squared differences between observed sample values
                                                      ^
           y i and  the  estimated  expected  value  of  Y , ^   ‡  x i ,  is  minimized.  Let  us
           write
                                                 ^
                                    e i ˆ y i  …^   ‡  x i †:           …11:5†








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