Exercise: Parameter estimation

1. Suppose a student measuring the boiling temperature of a certain liquid observes the readings (in
degrees Celsius) 102.5, 101.7, 103.1, 100.9, 100.5, and 102.2 on 6 different samples of the liquid. He
knows that the standard deviation for this procedure is 1.2 degrees.

a. Find the best point estimate for the mean of the temperature

b. Using a 95% confidence level, find the margin of error for the mean of the temperature

c. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the temperature

d. How many liquids must be included in the sample if he wants to be 99% confident that the sample
mean is within 1 degree of the population mean?

2. A large company conducted a series of tests to determine how much data individual users were stored
on the file server. A random sample of 15 users were selected with a standard deviation of 0.18 GB.

16.33 14.22 17.15 12.23 16.34 15.67 16.8 15.4

13.5 12.6 18.4 12.3 14.6 16.7 17.56

a. Find the best point estimate for the mean of the storage of each user

b. Using a 90% confidence level, find the margin of error for the mean of the storage of each user

c. Construct a 90% confidence interval for the storage

d. How many users must be included in the sample if they want to be 95% confident that the sample mean
is within 3.8GB of the population mean?

3. A plastic company is trying out a new machine. The operation times (in seconds) for the machine in 25
trials are stated in the table below. Assuming that the standard deviation is 0.22 seconds;

6.77 7.43 7.32 5.79 10.14

8.16 7.76 7.49 8.99 5.05
8.65 8.96 7.86 4.99 6.99

a. Find the best point estimate for the mean of the operation time for that machine

b. Using a 95% confidence level, find the margin of error for the mean of the operation time for that
machine

c. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the operation time

d. How many trials must they run if they want to be 99% confident that the sample mean is within 2.6
seconds of the population mean?

4. 25 parts are randomly selected from a plastic injection molding process and their lengths are measured.
The mean length of the 25 parts is 4.32 cm with a standard deviation of 0.17 cm.

a. Find the best point estimate for the mean of the length of the parts

b. Using a 90% confidence level, find the margin of error for the mean of the length of the parts

c. Construct a 90% confidence interval for the length of the parts

d. How many parts must be included in the sample if they want to be 99% confident that the sample mean
is within 5.6 cm of the population mean?