STAT 266 - Lecture 2
STAT 266 - Lecture 2
2 Confidence Intervals
C.I for Population Variance and Ratio of two Variances
The following gives some critical values of t-distribution from the table:
t0.10,15 = 1.341
t0.025,24 = 2.064
t0.01,5 = 3.365
t0.05,4 = 2.132
It is a continuous distribution.
The critical values, χ2α(−1) are all positive.
The shape of the distribution depends on its degrees of freedom,
(n − 1). The diagram below shows the various curves associated with
their degrees of freedom, (n − 1) .
The distribution is markedly skewed to the right when the degrees of
freedom is small.
The skewness disappears rapidly to become normally distributed as
degrees of freedom increases to 30 or more.
χ20.025,(21) = 35.4789
χ20.95,(17) = 8.67176
χ20.05,(4) = 9.48773
Using the degrees of freedom 12, P(χ2 ≥ 18.5494) = 0.10
We can read the following critical values from the various F-distribution
tables:
(i) F0.10(1,6) = 3.78
(ii) F0.05(5,19) = 2.74
(iii) F0.01(12,5) = 9.89
(iv) F0.10(15,10) = 2.24
(v) F0.025(5,10) = 4.24
(vi) F0.99(12,5) = (F0.01(5,12) )−1 = (5.06)−1 = 0.198
2 Confidence Intervals
C.I for Population Variance and Ratio of two Variances
r r
p(1 − p) p̂(1 − p̂)
p̂ ± Z α2 Se(p̂) = p̂ ± Z α2 · ≈ p̂ ± Z α2 ·
n n
where p̂ = xn is the point estimator for p and n ≥ 30 and both np̂ and
np̂(1 − p̂) are ≥ 5
r
p̂(1 − p̂)
The error of Estimation becomes E = Z α2 ·
n
Z α2 p̂(1 − p̂)
from which we have n = 2
E2
If there is no prior knowledge of p or p̂, p̂(1 − p̂) is replaced by its
maximum value 0.25.
1.(a) A sample survey conducted in a city showed that 180 families spend
on the average $180.45 per week on food with a standard deviation of
$22.60. What can we say with 95% confidence about the maximum error
if $180.45 is weekly food expenditure of families used as an estimate of
the actual average in the population? Obtain the interval estimate for this
population average and comment on your result.
σ 22.60
E = Z α2 √ = (1.96) √ = 3.3
n 180
The actual population average is estimated within the interval estimate
The financial aid office of a University wishes to estimate the mean cost of
recommended textbooks per semester for students. In order for the
estimate to be useful, they want it to be within $8,500 of the true mean
cost.
How large a sample of semesters should be considered in order to be
99% confident of achieving this level of accuracy? Assume a standard
deviation of $40,000.
Obtain a 95 interval estimate for the true mean cost if a random
sample of size 40 with a mean of $80,000 and standard deviation
$35,000.
If the sample sizes are small, the two population variances are
assumed to be equal(i.e σ12 = σ22 )and the interval becomes
r
1 1
(x 1 − x 2 ) ± t α2 ,(n1 +n2 −2) Sp +
n1 n2
where
(n1 − 1)s12 + (n2 − 1)s22
sp2 =
n1 + n2 − 2
which is the estimate of the common variance σ 2 .
The 95% confidence interval for the difference (µA − µB ), between the
scores where both nA ≥ 30 and nB ≥ 30 is
s
sA2 s2
= (x A − x B ) ± Z α2 + 2
nA nB
r
102 82
= (66 − 62) ± (1.96) +
55 40
= 4 ± 1.96(1.85)
= 4 ± 3.626
= (0.374, 7.626)
(i) What is the point estimate of the difference between the two
population proportions, (p1 − p2 )?
2 Confidence Intervals
C.I for Population Variance and Ratio of two Variances
The confidence interval for the population variance is based on the
1 (n − 1)s 2
sampling distribution of the statistic χ2 = 2 ni=1 xi − x =
P
σ σ2
which has the chi-square distribution with (n − 1) degrees of freedom. The
confidence interval for the population variance σ 2 is illustrated as follows:
(n − 1)s 2 2 (n − 1)s 2
≤ σ ≤
χ2α , (n − 1) χ21− α (n − 1)
2 2