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Sample Proportions: Section 9.2

The document discusses sample proportions and the sampling distribution of a sample proportion. It explains that as the sample size increases, the standard deviation of the sampling distribution decreases, making the sample proportion more accurate. It also discusses how the normal approximation for the sampling distribution is most accurate when the population proportion is close to 0.5 and when the sample size is larger.

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50 views12 pages

Sample Proportions: Section 9.2

The document discusses sample proportions and the sampling distribution of a sample proportion. It explains that as the sample size increases, the standard deviation of the sampling distribution decreases, making the sample proportion more accurate. It also discusses how the normal approximation for the sampling distribution is most accurate when the population proportion is close to 0.5 and when the sample size is larger.

Uploaded by

krothroc
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sample Proportions

Section 9.2
Are You Smarter Than a 5th
Grader?
 What proportion of US teens know that
1492 was the year that Columbus sailed to
America?
 A Gallup Poll found that 210 out of a
random sample of 501 American teens
knew this date. So what is the sample
proportion?
 This proportion is the statistic that we use
to gain information about the unknown
population parameter, p.
The Sampling Distribution of a Sample
Proportion
Think Back to Yesterday’s Notes…
 Because the mean of the sampling
distribution is equal to the population
parameter, we can say that…

 What happens to the standard deviation as


the sample size increases? Why?

 That means that…

 Also, since n is under the square root,


what would we have to do to the sample
size to cut the standard deviation in half?
Why Not Just Ask Everyone?
 The formula for the standard
deviation of the sampling
distribution of p-hat doesn’t
apply when the sample is a
large part of the population, say
asking 50 people out of 100. In
practice, we usually only take a
sample when the population is
very large. If the population is
small, why not just ask
everyone in the population?
So When Is the Population Large?
Are You Really In Shape?
 Yesterday we saw that the sampling
distribution of p-hat is approximately
Normal and the accuracy of the Normal
approximation improves as the sample
size increases.

 Also, for a fixed sample size, n, the


Normal approximation is most accurate
when p is close to 0.5.
What That Looks Like…
So When Can We Use the Normal
Approximation?
Applying To College?
 A polling organization asks and SRS of
1500 first-year college students whether
they applied for admission to any other
college. In fact, 35% of all first-year
students applied to colleges besides the
one that they are attending. What is the
probability that that the random sample
will give a result within 2 percentage
points of this true value?
Did You Cover All Your Bases?
 One way of checking the effect of
undercoverage, nonresponse, and other
sources of error in a sample survey is to
compare the sample with known facts
about the population.
Is It All Just Black and White?
 About 11% of American
adults are African
American. A national
sample of 1500
American adults gives a
sample proportion of
only 9.2% African
Americans. Should we
suspect that the
sampling procedure is
biased?

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