Exam 8: Confidence Interval Estimation

The head librarian at the Library of Congress has asked her assistant for an interval estimate of the mean number of books checked out each day.The assistant provides the following interval estimate: from 740 to 920 books per day.If the head librarian knows that the population standard deviation is150 books checked out per day, approximately how large a sample did her assistant use to determine the interval estimate?

An economist is interested in studying the incomes of consumers in a country.The population standard deviation is known to be $1,000.A random sample of 50 individuals resulted in a mean income of $15,000.What is the upper end in a 99% confidence interval for the average income?

The head librarian at the Library of Congress has asked her assistant for an interval estimate of the mean number of books checked out each day.The assistant provides the following interval estimate: from 740 to 920 books per day.What is an efficient, unbiased point estimate of the number of books checked out each day at the Library of Congress?

A race car driver tested his car for time from 0 to 60 mph, and for 20 tests obtained a mean of 4.85 seconds with a standard deviation of 1.47 seconds.A 95% confidence interval for the 0 to 60 mean time is 4.52 seconds to 5.18 seconds.

The t distribution allows the calculation of confidence intervals for means for small samples when the population variance is not known, regardless of the shape of the distribution in the population.

SCENARIO 8-3 To become an actuary, it is necessary to pass a series of 10 exams, including the most important one, an exam in probability and statistics.An insurance company wants to estimate the mean score on this exam for actuarial students who have enrolled in a special study program.They take a sample of 8 actuarial students in this program and determine that their scores are: 2, 5, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, and 7.This sample will be used to calculate a 90% confidence interval for the mean score for actuarial students in the special study program. -Referring to Scenario 8-3, if we use the same sample information to obtain a 95% confidence interval, the resulting interval would be narrower than the one obtained here with 90% confidence.

SCENARIO 8-4 The actual voltages of power packs labeled as 12 volts are as follows: 11.77, 11.90, 11.64, 11.84, 12.13, 11.99, and 11.77. -Referring to Scenario 8-4, a 90% confidence interval calculated from the same data would be narrower than a 99% confidence interval.