Application of parametric and non-parametric statistics to sounding rocket dispersion including large sample and small sample theory

Abstract

Analytical methods for obtaining large and small samples to be used in sounding rocket dispersion statistics are described. When the distribution of the parent population is assumed known, a method is called parametric. When no assumption is made about the parent population, the method is called nonparametric. Parametric and nonparametric methods are given for both large and small samples. The assumed distribution for the parametric case will be normal and it is shown that sample nonparametric theory is easier to apply in many cases, giving essentially the same results as parametric theory. The method is applied to the dispersion of NASA sounding rockets from 1959 to 1974.