jackknife

views updated May 29 2018

jack·knife / ˈjakˌnīf/ • n. (pl. -knives) 1. a knife with a folding blade. 2. a dive in which the body is first bent at the waist and then straightened. 3. Statistics a method of assessing the variability of data by repeating a calculation on the sets of data obtained by removing one value from the complete set.• v. (-knifed, -knif·ing) [tr.] move (one's body) into a bent or doubled-up position: the Major jackknifed his thin body at the waist | [intr.] she jackknifed into a sitting position. ∎  [intr.] (of an articulated vehicle) bend into a V-shape in an uncontrolled skidding movement. ∎  [intr.] (of a diver) perform a jackknife.

jackknife

views updated Jun 11 2018

jackknife A statistical technique in which, given a data set with n observations, the analysis is recalculated n times omitting each observation in turn (removed with a “jackknife”). The mean and variance of the estimated parameters in the model may be compared with those obtained from the full set. The method is related to statistical bootstrap estimation.

More From encyclopedia.com