Sampling

TYPES OF STUDIES

1. The following table shows the age and shoe size of six children. Does
the data have a positive correlation, negative correlation, or no
correlation?

Age Shoe size

3 7

3 6

5 9

6 12

6 11

7 13

2. A class conducts a survey and finds that 75 % of the school spends 2

or more hours on social media each day. Would the data fit into a one-way
or two-way table? Is the study observational or experimental?

3. The following table shows the number of classes from which students
were absent and their final grade in the class. Does the data have a
positive correlation, negative correlation, or no correlation?

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Number of absences 0 0 1 2 3 3 3 5 5 6 7 10

Final grade 95% 97% 90% 86% 80% 74% 70% 65% 64% 58% 55% 45%

4. The table below shows the favorite winter activity of 50 adults. Is it a

one-way data table? Why or why not?

Skiing Snowboarding Ice Skating

Men 9 13 6

Women 8 7 7

5. Is the following experiment an example of a double-blind experiment?

If not, what could be changed to make it a double-blind experiment?

“A soda company has developed a new flavor and wants to

know how it compares in taste to competitor sodas. An
employee of the soda company conducts a survey where
participants are asked which soda tastes the best. The sodas are
given to participants in unmarked plastic cups by the employee.”

6. A new cancer drug is being used to treat cancer in children and adults.
The hospital conducts a study to measure the effectiveness of the new
drug. Cancer patients are placed into groups according to their age and
each age range is split into two groups. One group is given traditional
treatment of the cancer and the other group is given the new drug. Will

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the data fit into a one-way or two-way table? Is the study observational or
experimental?

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SAMPLING AND BIAS

1. The zoo conducts a survey on why patrons enjoy coming to the zoo.
They ask families with children about why they like to visit the zoo as
they’re leaving. Give a reason why the sampling method may be biased.

2. The owner of a restaurant gives a survey to each customer. Included

in the survey is the question “Have you ever not tipped your waiter or
waitress?” Give a reason why the sampling method may be biased.

3. A health club wants to purchase a new machine and would like to

know which machine members would most like to have. It creates a survey
where members can rate the different machines that the health club is
considering purchasing, and posts it at the reception desk for members to
fill out if they choose to do so. Does the sample contain a bias? If so, what
kind?

4. A biologist wants to study a group of prairie dogs for parasites, but

cannot examine the entire population. Which sampling method would be
better in this case, a stratified random sample or a clustered random
sample?

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 5. A hospital is studying the health effects of obesity. They group
patients into different groups according to a specific weight range and
study a variety of biometrics. What type of sampling is this?

6. A museum wants to find out the demographics of its patrons. They set
up a survey and ask every 5th customer about their age, ethnicity, and
gender. What type of sampling is this?

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SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION OF THE SAMPLE MEAN

1. The population of 32 year-old women in the United States have an

average salary of $42,000, but the distribution of their salaries is not
normally distributed. A random sample of 24 women is taken. Does the
sample meet the criteria to use the central limit theorem?

2. There are 130 dogs at a dog show who weigh an average of 11 pounds
with a standard deviation of 3 pounds. A sample of 9 dogs is taken. What
is the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the sample mean?

3. A large university population has an average student age of 30 years

old with a standard deviation of 5 years, and student age is normally
distributed. A sample of 80 students is randomly taken. What is the
probability that the mean of their ages will be less than 29?

4. A cereal company packages cereal in 12.5-ounce boxes with a

standard deviation of 0.5 ounces. The amount of cereal put into each box
is normally distributed. The company randomly selects 100 boxes to check
their weight. What is the probability that the mean weight will be greater
than 12.6 ounces?

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 5. A large hospital finds that the average body temperature of their
patients is 98.4∘, with a standard deviation of 0.6∘, and we’ll assume that
body temperature is normally distributed. The hospital randomly selects 30
patients to check their temperature. What is the probability that the mean
temperature of these patients x̄ is within 0.2∘ of the population mean?

6. A company produces volleyballs in a factory. Individual volleyballs are

filled to an approximate pressure of 7.9 PSI (pounds per square inch), with
a standard deviation of 0.2 PSI. Air pressure in the volleyballs is normally
distributed. The company randomly selects 50 volleyballs to check their
pressure. What is the probability that the mean amount of pressure in
these balls x̄ is within 0.05 PSI of the population mean?

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CONDITIONS FOR INFERENCE WITH THE SDSM

1. There are 1,000 students at our school, and we ask 150 of them to tell
us their height as they exit school at the end of the day. Have we met the
conditions for inference?

2. We randomly sample 400 boxes (with replacement) in a very large,

national shipping warehouse and record their weight in kilograms. Have
we met the conditions for inference?

3. A cookie company makes packages of cookies, where the weight of

the packages is normally distributed with μ = 500 grams and σ = 4 grams. If
the cookie company’s production manager randomly selects 100 packages
of cookies, what is the probability that the sample mean is within 7.5 grams
of the population mean?

4. A sushi chef builds a sushi roll approximately every 3 minutes, with a

standard deviation of 15 seconds, every night while his restaurant is open
between 5 : 00 p.m. and 10 : 00 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. The time
spent to build sushi rolls is normally distributed. If the chef takes a random
sample of 20 sushi rolls over the course of a week, what is the probability
that the sample mean is within 5 seconds of the population mean?

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 5. The time spent playing video games by competitive gamers is
normally distributed with μ = 40 hours per week, and σ = 2.5 hours. If we
take a random sample with replacement of 75 players and record the
number of hours they spend playing this week, what’s the probability that
our sample mean is within 30 minutes of the population mean?

6. The time it takes for a roofing company to install a new roof on a

single-story house normally distributed with μ = 6 hours and σ = 1 hour. If
the company’s owner takes a random sample with replacement of 10
roofing jobs, what’s the probability that his sample mean is within 45
minutes of the population mean?

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SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION OF THE SAMPLE PROPORTION

1. The state representatives want to know how their constituents feel

about the new tax to fund road improvements, so they send out a survey.
Of the 5 million who reside in the state, 150,000 people respond. 40 %
disapprove of the new tax and 60 % are in favor of the new tax because of
the improvements they’ve seen to the roads. Does this sample meet the
conditions for inference?

2. An ice cream shop states that only 5 % of their 1,200 customers order a
sugar cone. We want to verify this claim, so we randomly select 120
customers to see if they order a sugar cone. Does this sample meet the
conditions for inference?

3. The zoo conducts a study about the demographics of its patrons, and
wants to learn about how many groups that visit the zoo bring children
under age 12. Every 10th customer or group is recorded as a “family,” and
classified as either “including children under 12” or “not including children
under 12.” The zoo collected data on 65 families, and 45 of them are
classified as “not including children under 12.” That day, 650 families came
to the zoo. What is the standard error of the sampling distribution of the
sample proportion?

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 4. A pizza shop finds that 80 % of the 75 randomly selected pizzas
ordered during the week have pepperoni. What is the standard error of
the proportion if the pizza shop has a total of 1,000 pizzas ordered during
the week?

5. A hospital conducts a survey and finds that 10 patients of 30 who are

randomly selected on a given day have high blood pressure. There were
325 patients in the hospital that day. What is the standard error of the
proportion?

6. A study claims that first-born children are more likely to become

leaders. The study finds that 72 % of 2,000 first-born children are currently
in or have held leadership roles in their careers. Another group of
scientists wants to verify the claim, but can’t survey all 2,000 people, so
they randomly sample 175 of the participants. What is the probability that
their results are within 2 % of the first study’s claim?

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CONDITIONS FOR INFERENCE WITH THE SDSP

1. A gym owner takes a random sample of 10 local fitness instructors and

asks them whether or not they train clients at multiple gyms. He finds that
p̂ = 70 % of them report training clients at multiple gyms. Can he proceed
with a hypothesis test?

2. A professional basketball player makes 87.5 % of his free throws. If he

takes a random sample (without replacement) of 100 of his own free
throws, can he move forward with a hypothesis test?

3. If the basketball player from the previous question finds a sample

proportion p̂ = 0.85 in his sample of 100 free throws, calculate his test
statistic. Remember that p = 0.875.

4. A grocery chain claims that 75 % of their customers say that they are
“satisfied” with their local store. We want to verify this claim, so we take a
random sample of 45 of their customers and ask them whether or not they
are “satisfied.” How likely is it that our results are within 2 % of the chain’s
claim?

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 5. A professional pickleball player claims that he wins 60 % of the points
he plays in championship matches. We want to verify this claim, so we
take a random sample of 25 of his points in championship matches and
record whether or not he wins each point. How likely is it that our results
are within 5 % of the player’s claim?

6. A company reports that the proportion of its invoices that get paid on
time is p = 35 % . A clerk on the Accounts Receivable team wants to verify
this claim, so she takes a random sample of 80 invoices and records
whether or not they were paid on time. How likely is it that her sample
proportion will fall within 10 % of the company’s claim?

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THE STUDENT’S T-DISTRIBUTION

1. We take a random sample of size n = 25, and we want to be 99 %

confident about our results. What t-score will we find?

2. We take a random sample of size n = 18, and we want to be 90 %

confident about our results. What t-score will we find?

3. We take a random sample of size n = 8, and we want to be 95 %

confident about our results. What t-score will we find?

4. We take a random sample of size n = 14, and our upper-tail probability

will be 0.05. What t-score will we find?

5. We take a random sample of size n = 21, and our upper-tail probability

will be 0.001. What t-score will we find?

6. We take a random sample of size n = 3, and our upper-tail probability

will be 0.025. What t-score will we find?

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CONFIDENCE INTERVAL FOR THE MEAN

1. We want to determine the mean of calories served in a restaurant meal

in America. The government has already done a study to find this mean,
and they found σ = 350.2. We randomly sample 31 meals and find x̄ = 1,500.
Construct and interpret a 95 % confidence interval for the mean number of
calories in a restaurant meal.

2. A bus travels between Kansas City and Denver. We take a sample of

30 trips and find a mean travel time of x̄ = 12 hours with standard deviation
s = 0.25 hours. Construct and interpret a 95 % confidence interval for the
mean bus trip time in hours from Kansas City to Denver.

3. A student wanted to know how many chocolates were in the small

bags of chocolate candies her school was selling for a fundraiser. She took
a simple random sample of 20 small bags of chocolate candy. From the
sample, she found an average of 17 pieces of candy per bag with a
standard deviation of 2.03.

A box-plot of the data from the sample showed the distribution to be

approximately normal. Compute and interpret a 95 % confidence interval
for the mean number of chocolate candies per bag.

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 4. Consider the formula for a confidence interval for a population mean
with an unknown sample standard deviation. How does doubling the
sample size affect the confidence interval?
s
(a, b) = x̄ ± t* ⋅
n

5. A magazine took a random sample of 30 people and reported the

average spending on an Easter basket this year to be $44.78 per basket
with a sample standard deviation of $18.10. Construct and interpret a 98 %
confidence interval for the data.

6. A confidence interval for a study is (11.5,18.5). What was the value of

the sample mean?

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CONFIDENCE INTERVAL FOR THE PROPORTION

1. According to a recent poll, 47 % of the 648 Americans surveyed make

weekend plans based on the weather. Construct and interpret a 99 %
confidence interval for the percentage of Americans who make weekend
plans based on the weather.

2. We want to determine the proportion of teenagers who own their own

cell phone. We take a random sample of 100 teenagers and find that 86 of
them own a cell phone. At 90 % confidence, build a confidence interval for
the population proportion.

3. A biologist is trying to determine the proportion of plants in a jungle

that are ferns. She takes a random sample of 82 plants and finds that 31 of
them can be classified as ferns. At 95 % confidence, what is the confidence
interval for the population proportion?

4. A statistics teacher at a university conducted a study and found that

80 % of university students are interested in taking a statistics class. We
want to see if this proportion holds at your own university. Find the
minimum sample size we can use to keep a margin of error of 0.02 at a 99 %
confidence level.

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 5. Sarah is conducting a class survey to determine if the percentage of
juniors in favor of having the next dance at a local bowling alley is 65 % .
How many juniors should she survey in order to be 90 % confident with a
margin of error of 0.08?

6. A study suggests that 10 % of practicing physicians are cognitively

impaired. What random sample of practicing physicians is needed to
confirm this finding at a confidence level of 95 % with a margin of error of
0.05?

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