We define also the sample variance $\sigma^2$ of all $mn$ individual experiments as $$\begin{equation} \sigma^2=\frac{1}{mn}\sum_{\alpha=1}^m\sum_{k=1}^n (x_{\alpha,k}-\langle X_m \rangle)^2. \tag{10} \end{equation}$$

These quantities, being known experimental values or the results from our calculations, may differ, in some cases significantly, from the similarly named exact values for the mean value $\mu_X$, the variance $\mathrm{Var}(X)$ and the covariance $\mathrm{Cov}(X,Y)$.