ESTIMATION & SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION

Question 1:
Suppose that the amount of time teenagers spend weekly working at part-time jobs
is normally distributed with a standard deviation of 40 minutes. A random sample of
15 teenagers was drawn, and each reported the amount of time spent at part time
jobs (in minutes). These are listed here. Determine the 95% confidence interval
estimate of the population mean.
180

130

150

125

150

165

90

130

120

60

200

180

80

240

210

Question 2:
One of the few negative side effects of quitting smoking is weight gain. Suppose
that the weight gain in the 12 months following a cessation in smoking is normally
distributed with standard deviation of 6 pounds. To estimate the mean weight, a
random sample of 13 quitters was drawn; their recorded weights are listed here.
Determine the 90% confidence interval estimate of the mean 12-month weight gain
for all quitters.
16

23

14

22

18

11

10

19

15

Question 3:
The operations manager of a large production plant would like to estimate the
average amount of time workers take to assemble a new electronic component.
After observing a number of workers assembling similar devices, she guesses that
the standard deviation is 6 minutes. How large a sample of workers should she take
if she wishes to estimate the mean assembly time to within 20 seconds? Assume
that the confidence level is to be 99%.
Question 4:
A statistics professor wants to compare todays students with those 25 years ago.
All his current students marks are stored on a computer so that he can easily
determine the population mean. However, the marks 25 years ago reside only in his
musty files. He does not want to retrieve all the marks and will be satisfied with a
95% confidence interval estimate of the mean mark 25 years ago. If he assumes
that the population standard deviation is 12, how large a sample should he take to
estimate the mean to within 2 marks?
Question 5:
Part of a university professors job is to publish his or her research. This task often
entails reading a variety of journal articles to keep up to date. To help determine
faculty standards, a dean of a business school surveyed a random sample of 12
professors across the country and asked them to count the number of journal
articles they read in a typical month. These data are listed here. Estimate with 90%
confidence the mean number of journal articles read monthly by professors.
9

17

Question 6:

23

56

30

41

45

21

10

44

20

A dean of a business school wanted to know whether the graduates of her school
used a statistical inference technique during their first year of employment after
graduation. She surveyed 314 graduates and asked about the use of statistical
techniques. After tallying the responses, she found that 204 used statistical
inference within one year of graduation. Estimate with 90% confidence the
proportion of all business school graduates who use their statistical education within
a year of graduation.
Question 7:
What type of educational background do CEOs have? In one survey, 344 CEOs of
medium and large companies were asked whether they had MBA degrees. There
were 97 MBAs. Estimate with 95% confidence the proportion of all CEOs of medium
and large companies who have MBAs.