The sample proportion

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sample and population proportions:

Often sampling is done in order to estimate the proportion

of a population that has a specific characteristic,
such as
 the proportion of all items coming off an assembly line
that are defective.
 the proportion of all people entering a retail store who
make a purchase before leaving.
 The population proportion is denoted p and the sample
proportion is denoted 𝑷෡.
.

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Thus if in reality 43% of people entering a store make a
𝑋
purchase before leaving, P = = 0.43;
𝑁
if in a sample of 200 people entering the
store, 78 make a purchase , 𝑷෡ = 𝑥 =78/200 = 0.39
𝑛

Where:
N : is the total number of elements in the population.
n: is the total number of elements in the sample.
X: is the number of elements in the population that
possess a specific characteristic.
x : is the number of elements in the sample that possess
the same specific characteristic.

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The probability distribution of the sample
෡ , is called its sampling distribution.
proportion, 𝑷

The sample proportion is a random variable: it

varies from sample to sample in a way that cannot
be predicted with certainty.

෡.
as a random variable 𝑷
It has a mean 𝝁𝑷෡
and a standard deviation 𝝈𝑷෡ .

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 ෡ is denoted
 The mean of the sample proportion,𝑷
by 𝝁𝑷
෡ and equals to the population proportion 𝑷

𝝁𝑷෡ = 𝑷
෡
The standard deviation of the sample proportion𝑷
is denoted by 𝝈𝑷෡ and is given by

𝑷(𝟏−𝑷)
𝝈𝑷෡ =
𝒏

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According to the central limit theorem, the
sampling distribution of 𝑷෡ is approximately normal
for a sufficiently large sample size.

 In the case of proportion, the sample size is

considered to be sufficiently large if:
nP and n(1-P)are both greater than 5.

෡ is calculated by
 The z value for a value of 𝑷
෡ − 𝝁𝑷෡
𝑷 ෡ −𝑷
𝑷
𝒛= =
𝝈𝑷෡ 𝑷(𝟏 − 𝑷)
𝒏
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Example:

Example:
For a population, N = 2500 and P = 0.35 . for n = 49
෡ = 0.25
Find the z value for 𝑷
Solution:

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Example:

Example:
An online retailer claims that 90% of all orders are shipped
within 12 hours of being received. A consumer group
placed 121 and we have 102 orders were shipped within
12 hours. Compute :
1. The sample proportion of items shipped within 12
hours.
2. Does the sample proportion is normally distributed.
3. find the probability that a sample of size 121 would
produce a sample proportion so low as was observed in
this sample.
4. Comment on the ans.in part3.

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solution:

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Homework:

Suppose that in a population of voters in a certain region 38% are in favor

of particular bond issue. Nine hundred randomly selected voters are asked if
they favor the bond issue.

1. Verify that the sample proportion computed from samples of size 900
meets the condition that its sampling distribution be approximately
normal.
2. Find the probability that the sample proportion computed from a sample
of size 900 will be within 5 percentage points of the true population
proportion.

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