Tutorial 3 – Questions

Measures of central tendency and spread, sampling variation & standard

error
1. Define what is meant by the following statistical terms.
a. Mode
b. Inter-quartile range
c. Standard deviation
d. Standard error

2. Serum triglyceride. Serum triglyceride was measured from the cord blood of 9 babies. The levels
ranged from 0.11 up to 0.53 mmol/L and are given in the table below.

Serum triglyceride levels (mmol/L)

0.11
0.12
0.16
0.18
0.21
0.27
0.34
0.45
0.53

Using the data in the above table, the sample mean and standard deviation were found to be:

Sample mean = 0.26mmol/L,

Sample standard deviation = 0.15mmol/L

a. Calculate the sample median serum triglyceride level. Is it different from the sample
mean level? What could this imply about the shape of the distribution of serum
triglyceride level?
3. Suppose measurements of the body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) are recorded from a sample of size
n drawn at random from the population of men aged between 40 and 69 living in Melbourne in
2004 as part of a study of the relationship between blood pressure and BMI in lean populations.

Denote the population variance of the BMI by σ2 and the population standard deviation by σ.
Denote the sample mean of the BMI by x . We saw in lectures that the standard error of the
mean will be σ/√n.

a. What happens to the size of the standard error of the sample mean as the sample size n
is increased from n = 100 to n = 10,000?
b. The sample mean may be used as an estimate of the population BMI in men aged
between 40 and 69. What are the implications of increasing the sample size n on the
accuracy of our estimate?

4. In a report investigating the association between diet and the risk of postmenopausal breast
cancer (Giles G et al. Int J Cancer, 2006), the mean body mass index (BMI; kg/m2) of 13,171
women was 26.7 kg/m2 and the standard deviation was 4.5 kg/m2.

a. Calculate and describe in words the standard error.

b. Suppose that the BMI of one of the women was entered into the database incorrectly
(incorrect value 21.1 kg/m2; correct value 20.7 kg/m2). Using the correct value in the
database, would the above published values of the mean and standard deviation change
at all?

5. State which of the following are TRUE or FALSE.

a. The standard error of the sample mean:

i. measures the variability of the observations;
ii. is an estimate of how far the sample mean is likely to be from the population
mean;
iii. is greater than the estimated standard deviation.

b. If the size of a random sample were increased, we would expect:

i. the sample mean to decrease;
ii. the sample standard deviation to decrease;
iii. the standard error of the sample mean to decrease.

c. The maximum volume of air that can be breathed out in 1 second (measured using a
spirometer) is called the Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 second (denoted as FEV1). It is
necessary to estimate the mean FEV1 by drawing a sample from a large population. The
accuracy of the estimate will depend on:
i. the mean FEV1 in the population;
ii. the number in the population;
iii. the number in the sample;
iv. the variance of FEV1 in the population;
v. the way the sample is selected.