Confidence Interval
The range within which the true value of a measured quantity is expected to lie with a stated probability.
Formula / equation
μ = x̄ ± ts / √n
Unit
Various
In depth
The interval is calculated from the mean, the standard deviation and a Student's t value chosen for the desired confidence level and the number of degrees of freedom. Reporting an interval rather than a bare number makes the reliability of a result explicit.
Examples in the real world
Reporting a concentration as 0.1043 ± 0.0008 M at the 95% confidence level.