Chapter – 7: Sampling Distribution

Calculation of Point Estimators:

57 61 86 74 72 73
20 57 80 79 83 74

a. Develop a point estimate of mean fan rating for the population of NFL games.
b. Develop a point estimate of the standard deviation for the population of NFL games.

2. One of the questions in the Pew Internet & American Life Project asked adults if they used
the Internet at least occasionally (Pew website, October 23, 2012). The results showed that
454 out of 478 adults aged 18–29 answered Yes; 741 out of 833 adults aged 30–49 answered
Yes; 1058 out of 1644 adults aged 50 and over answered Yes.
a. Develop a point estimate of the proportion of adults aged 18–29 who use the Internet.
b. Develop a point estimate of the proportion of adults aged 30–49 who use the Internet.
c. Develop a point estimate of the proportion of adults aged 50 and over who use the
Internet.
d. Comment on any relationship between age and Internet use that seems apparent.
e. Suppose your target population of interest is that of all adults (18 years of age and
over). Develop an estimate of the proportion of that population who use the Internet.

Sampling Distribution of the mean Calculations:

1. The Economic Policy Institute periodically issues report on wages of entry level workers. The
institute reported that entry level wages for male college graduates were $21.68 per hour and
for female college graduates were $18.80 per hour in 2011 (Economic Policy Institute
website, March 30, 2012). Assume the standard deviation for male graduates is $2.30, and for
female graduates it is $2.05.
a. What is the probability that a sample of 50 male graduates will provide a sample
mean within $.50 of the population mean, $21.68?
b. What is the probability that a sample of 50 female graduates will provide a sample
mean within $.50 of the population mean, $18.80?
c. In which of the preceding two cases, part (a) or part (b), do we have a higher
probability of obtaining a sample estimate within $.50 of the population mean? Why?
d. What is the probability that a sample of 120 female graduates will provide a sample
mean more than $.30 below the population mean?

2. The state of California has a mean annual rainfall of 22 inches, whereas the state of New
York has a mean annual rainfall of 42 inches (Current Results website, October 27, 2012).
Assume that the standard deviation for both states is 4 inches. A sample of 30 years of rainfall
for California and a sample of 45 years of rainfall for New York has been taken.
a. Show the probability distribution of the sample mean annual rainfall for California.
b. What is the probability that the sample mean is within 1 inch of the population mean for
California?
 c. What is the probability that the sample mean is within 1 inch of the population mean for
New York?
d. In which case, part (b) or part (c), is the probability of obtaining a sample mean within
1 inch of the population mean greater? Why?

3. To estimate the mean age for a population of 4000 employees, a simple random sample of 40
employees is selected.
a. Would you use the finite population correction factor in calculating the standard error
of the mean? Explain.
b. If the population standard deviation is s = 8.2 years, compute the standard error both
with and without the finite population correction factor. What is the rationale for
ignoring the finite population correction factor whenever n/n ≤ .05?
c. What is the probability that the sample mean age of the employees will be within ±2
years of the population mean age?

Sampling Distribution of the proportion calculations:

1. Forty two percent of primary care doctors think their patients receive unnecessary medical care
(reader’s digest, December 2011/January 2012).
a. Suppose a sample of 300 primary care doctors were taken. Show the sampling
distribution of the proportion of the doctors who think their patients receive
unnecessary medical care.
b. What is the probability that the sample proportion will be within ±.03 of the
population proportion?
c. What is the probability that the sample proportion will be within ±.05 of the
population proportion?
d. What would be the effect of taking a larger sample on the probabilities in parts (b)
and (c)? Why?

2. Lori Jeffrey is a successful sales representative for a major publisher of college textbooks.
Historically, Lori obtains a book adoption on 25% of her sales calls. Viewing her sales calls for
one month as a sample of all possible sales calls, assume that a statistical analysis of the data
yields a standard error of the proportion of .0625.
a. How large was the sample used in this analysis? That is, how many sales calls did
Lori make during the month?
b. Let p indicate the sample proportion of book adoptions obtained during the month.
Show the sampling distribution of p
c. Using the sampling distribution of p, compute the probability that Lori will obtain
book adoptions on 30% or more of her sales calls during a one-month period.