Exam 8: Confidence Interval Estimation

Private colleges and universities rely on money contributed by individuals and corporations for their operating expenses.Much of this money is put into a fund called an endowment, and the college spends only the interest earned by the fund.A recent survey of 8 private colleges in the United States revealed the following endowments (in millions of dollars): 60.2, 47.0, 235.1, 490.0, 122.6, 177.5,95.4, and 220.0.What value will be used as the point estimate for the mean endowment of all private colleges in the United States?

SCENARIO 8-6 After an extensive advertising campaign, the manager of a company wants to estimate the proportion of potential customers that recognize a new product.She samples 120 potential consumers and finds that 54 recognize this product.She uses this sample information to obtain a 95% confidence interval that goes from 0.36 to 0.54. -Referring to Scenario 8-6, 95% of the time, the proportion of people that recognize the product will fall between 0.36 and 0.54.

SCENARIO 8-7 A hotel chain wants to estimate the mean number of rooms rented daily in a given month.The population of rooms rented daily is assumed to be normally distributed for each month with a standard deviation of 240 rooms.During February, a sample of 25 days has a sample mean of 370 rooms. -Referring to Scenario 8-7, a 90% confidence interval calculated from the same data would be narrower than a 99% confidence interval.

SCENARIO 8-8 The president of a university would like to estimate the proportion of the student population that owns a personal computer.In a sample of 500 students, 417 own a personal computer. -Referring to Scenario 8-8, the parameter of interest is the proportion of the student population who own a personal computer.

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?

SCENARIO 8-6 After an extensive advertising campaign, the manager of a company wants to estimate the proportion of potential customers that recognize a new product.She samples 120 potential consumers and finds that 54 recognize this product.She uses this sample information to obtain a 95% confidence interval that goes from 0.36 to 0.54. -The head of a computer science department is interested in estimating the proportion of students entering the department who will choose the new computer engineering option.A preliminary sample indicates that the proportion will be around 0.25.Therefore, what size sample should the department head take if she wants to be 95% confident that the estimate is within 0.10 of the true proportion?

In the construction of confidence intervals, if all other quantities are unchanged, an increase in the sample size will lead to an interval.

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 95% confidence interval for the mean voltage of the power pack is wider than a 99% confidence interval.

SCENARIO 8-10 A sales and marketing management magazine conducted a survey on salespeople cheating on their expense reports and other unethical conduct.In the survey on 200 managers, 58% of the managers have caught salespeople cheating on an expense report, 50% have caught salespeople working a second job on company time, 22% have caught salespeople listing a "strip bar" as a restaurant on an expense report, and 19% have caught salespeople giving a kickback to a customer. -Referring to Scenario 8-10, a 95% confidence interval will contain 95% of the population proportion of managers who have caught salespeople cheating on an expense report.

Given a sample mean of 2.1 and a population standard deviation of 0.7 from a sample of 10 data points, a 90% confidence interval will have a width of 2.36.

SCENARIO 8-8 The president of a university would like to estimate the proportion of the student population that owns a personal computer.In a sample of 500 students, 417 own a personal computer. -Referring to Scenario 8-8, it is possible that the 99% confidence interval calculated from the data will not contain the proportion of the student population who own a personal computer.

SCENARIO 8-10 A sales and marketing management magazine conducted a survey on salespeople cheating on their expense reports and other unethical conduct.In the survey on 200 managers, 58% of the managers have caught salespeople cheating on an expense report, 50% have caught salespeople working a second job on company time, 22% have caught salespeople listing a "strip bar" as a restaurant on an expense report, and 19% have caught salespeople giving a kickback to a customer. -Referring to Scenario 8-10, it is possible that the 95% confidence interval calculated from the data will not contain the population proportion of managers who have caught salespeople cheating on an expense report.

SCENARIO 8-9 A university wanted to find out the percentage of students who felt comfortable reporting cheating by their fellow students.A survey of 2,800 students was conducted and the students were asked if they felt comfortable reporting cheating by their fellow students.The results were 1,344 answered "Yes" and 1,456 answered "no". -Referring to Scenario 8-9, it is possible that the 99% confidence interval calculated from the data will not contain the sample proportion of students who feel comfortable reporting cheating by their fellow students.

SCENARIO 8-9 A university wanted to find out the percentage of students who felt comfortable reporting cheating by their fellow students.A survey of 2,800 students was conducted and the students were asked if they felt comfortable reporting cheating by their fellow students.The results were 1,344 answered "Yes" and 1,456 answered "no". -Referring to Scenario 8-9, a 95% confidence interval for the proportion of thestudent population who feel comfortable reporting cheating by their fellow students is narrower than a99% confidence interval.

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 confidence interval estimate of the population mean would only be valid if the distribution of voltages is normal.

A confidence interval was used to estimate the proportion of statistics students who are female.Arandom sample of 72 statistics students generated the following 90% confidence interval: (0.438,0.642).Using the information above, what total size sample would be necessary if we wanted to estimate the true proportion to within $\pm$ 0.08 using 95% confidence?

SCENARIO 8-5 A sample of salary offers (in thousands of dollars) given to management majors is: 48, 51, 46, 52, 47, 48, 47, 50, 51, and 59.Using this data to obtain a 95% confidence interval resulted in an interval from 47.19 to 52.61. -Referring to Scenario 8-5, 95% of the time, the sample mean salary offer to management majors will fall between 47.19 and 52.61.

SCENARIO 8-10 A sales and marketing management magazine conducted a survey on salespeople cheating on their expense reports and other unethical conduct.In the survey on 200 managers, 58% of the managers have caught salespeople cheating on an expense report, 50% have caught salespeople working a second job on company time, 22% have caught salespeople listing a "strip bar" as a restaurant on an expense report, and 19% have caught salespeople giving a kickback to a customer. -Referring to Scenario 8-10, we are 95% confident that between 51.16% and 64.84%of managers in the population have caught salespeople cheating on an expense report.

SCENARIO 8-2 A quality control engineer is interested in the mean length of sheet insulation being cut automatically by machine.The desired mean length of the insulation is 12 feet.It is known that the standard deviation in the cutting length is 0.15 feet.A sample of 70 cut sheets yields a mean length of 12.14 feet.This sample will be used to obtain a 99% confidence interval for the mean length cut by machine. -Referring to Scenario 8-2, the critical value to use in obtaining the confidence interval is .

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.