What is the difference between a sample and a population?
A (a) is a set of all items or events which are of interest for some question or experiment.
It is generally the group you are trying to make predictions or learn something about.
For most studies, it is either impossible or impractical to obtain data on an entire population.
This is why you need to use a smaller selection of items.
A (b) is a selection of observations from a population.
We measure data in a known sample to make a prediction, or inference, about the population.