Try to find an exam question to replace #12

Ch. 8 Review

1. A commercial for a breakfast cereal is shown during a certain television program. The manufacturer
of the cereal wants to estimate the percent of television viewers who watch the program. The
manufacturer wants the estimate to have a margin of error of at most 0.02 at a level of 95 percent
confidence. Of the following, which is the smallest sample size that will satisfy the manufacturer’s
requirements?

a. 40
b. 50
c. 100
d. 1,700
e. 2,500

2. A statistician proposed a new method for constructing a 90 percent confidence interval to estimate
the median of assessed home values for homes in a large community. To test the method, the
statistician will conduct a simulation by selecting 10,000 random samples of the same size from the
population. For each sample, a confidence interval will be constructed using the new method. If the
confidence level associated with the new method is actually 90 percent, which of the following will be
captured by approximately 9,000 of the confidence intervals constructed from the simulation?

a. The sample mean

b. The sample median
c. The sample standard deviation
d. The population mean
e. The population median

3. A botanist collected one leaf at random from each of 10 randomly selected mature maple trees of the
same species. The mean and the standard deviation of the surface areas for the 10 leaves in the
sample were computed. Assume the distribution of surface areas of maple leaves is normal. What is
the appropriate method for constructing a one-sample confidence interval to estimate the population
mean surface area of the species of maple leaves, and why is the method appropriate?

a. The t-interval is appropriate, because the population standard deviation is not known.
b. The t-interval is appropriate, because the t-interval is narrower than the z-interval.
c. The z-interval is appropriate, because the z-interval is narrower than the t-interval.
d. The z-interval is appropriate, because the central limit theorem applies.
e. The z-interval is appropriate, because the sample standard deviation is known.
4. A school administrator is interested in estimating the proportion of students in the district who
participate in community service activities. From a random sample of 100 students in the district, the
administrtor will construct a 99 percent confidence interval for the proportion of all district students
who participate in community service activities. Which of the following statements must be true?
a. The population proportion will be in the confidence interval.
b. The probability that the confidence interval will include the population proportion is 0.99.
c. The probability that the confidence interval will include the sample proportion is 0.99.
d. The population proportion and the sample proportion will be equal.
e. The probability that the population proportion and the sample proportion will be equal is
0.99.
5. Based on previous research, the standard deviation of the distribution of the age at which children
begin to walk is estimated to be 1.5 months. A random sample of children will be selected, and the
age at which each child begins to walk will be recorded. A 99 percent confidence interval for the
average age at which children begin to walk will be constructed using the data obtained from the
sample of children. Of the following, which is the smallest sample size that will result in a margin of
error of 0.1 month or less for the confidence interval?
a. 400
b. 900
c. 1,300
d. 1,600
e. 2,100

6. A random sample of 432 voters revealed that 100 are in favor of a certain bond issue. A 95 percent
confidence interval for the proportion of the population of voters who are in favor of the bond issue
is
a. 100 ±1.96
√
0.5(0.5)
432

b. 100 ±1.645
√ 0.5(0.5)
432

c. 100 ±1.96
√ 0.231(0.769)
432

d. 0.231 ±1.96
√0.231(0.769)
432

e. 0.231 ±1.645
√ 0.231( 0.769)
432
7. Based on a survey of a random sample of 900 adults in the United States, a journalist reports that 60
percent of adults in the United States are in favor of increasing the minimum hourly wage. If the
reported percent has a margin of error of 2.7 percentage points, which of the following is closest to
the level of confidence?

a. 80.0%
b. 90.0%
c. 95.0%
d. 95.5%
e. 99.0%
8. When using a one-sample t-procedure to construct a confidence interval for the mean of a finite
population, a condition is that the population size be at least 10 times the sample size. The reason for
the condition is to ensure that

a. the sample size is large enough

b. the central limit theorem is applicable for the sample mean
c. the sample standard deviation is a good approximation of the population standard deviation
d. the degree of dependence among observations is negligible
e. the sampling method is not biased

9. A news article reported that college students who have part-time jobs work an average of 15 hours
per week. The staff of a college newspaper thought that the average might be different from 15 hours
per week for their college. Data were collected on the number of hours worked per week for a
random sample of students at the college who have part-time jobs. The results of the sample are
shown below.

Sample Mean Std Error df t-statistic

13.755 0.707 25 -1.761

Which of the following represents a 95% confidence interval for μ ?

a. 13.755 ± 0.244
b. 13.755 ± 0.286
c. 13.755 ± 0.707
d. 13.755 ±1.245
e. 13.755 ±1.456

10. A polling agency conducted a survey by selecting 100 random samples, each consisting of 1,200
United States citizens. The citizens in each sample were asked whether they were optimistic about
the economy. For each sample, the polling agency created a 95 percent confidence interval for the
proportion of all United States citizens who were optimistic about the economy. Which of the
following statements is the best interpretation of the 95 percent confidence level?

a. With 100 confidence intervals, we can be 95% confident that the sample proportion of citizens of
the United States who are optimistic about the economy is correct.
b. We would expect about 95 of the 100 confidence intervals to contain the proportion of all citizens
of the United States who are optimistic about the economy.
c. We would expect about 5 of the 100 confidence intervals to not contain the sample proportion of
citizens of the United States who are optimistic about the economy.
d. Of the 100 confidence intervals, 95 of the intervals will be identical because they were
constructed from samples of the same size of 1,200.
e. The probability is 0.95 that 100 confidence intervals will yield the same information about the
sample proportion of citizens of the United States who are optimistic about the economy.
11. Some boxes of a certain brand of breakfast cereal include a voucher for a free DVD rental inside the box.
The company that makes the cereal claims that a voucher can be found in 20 percent of the boxes.
However, based on their experiences eating this cereal at home, a group of students believes that the
proportion of boxes with vouchers is less than 0.2. This group of students purchased 65 boxes of the
cereal to investigate the company’s claim. The students found a total of 11 vouchers for free video
rentals in the 65 boxes.

Suppose it is reasonable to assume that the 65 boxes purchased by the students are a random sample of all
boxes in this cereal.

a) Construct a 95% confidence interval to estimate the proportion of boxes with vouchers.

b) Based on this interval, is there support for the students’ belief that the proportion of boxes with vouchers is
not 0.2? Provide statistical evidence to support your answer.
12. A simple random sample of 101 students at South High School is taken. The mean grade point average of
these students (on a 4-point scale) was 3.12 with a standard deviation of .35. Construct a 95%
confidence interval for the mean grade point average of all South students. (Follow the 4-step Process)