Point estimation

Point estimation is like trying to guess how many toys you have in your toy box without actually counting them. Let's say you have 10 toys in your toy box, but you don't know that yet. You could make a guess, or an 'estimate', about how many toys are in your toy box by picking a number.

When we talk about point estimation in statistics, we are trying to guess what a piece of information might be without actually having all the information. We make this guess based on the information we do have, like looking at a small group of people to figure out what everyone in a larger group might be thinking or doing.

For example, let's say we want to guess the average height of all the kids in your class. We measure the height of you and a few of your friends, and we use that information to guess what the average height of everyone in your class might be. This guess is called our 'point estimate'.

Just like our guess of how many toys were in your toy box, our point estimate might not be exactly right. It's just an educated guess based on the information we have. That's why we always include a level of confidence with our point estimate, to help explain how sure we are about our guess.

So, point estimation is when we make an educated guess about something based on the information we have available to us. It's like trying to figure out how many toys you have without actually counting them!