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Group Assignment - Sampling Distribution

This document provides instructions for an assignment on sampling distributions. Students are asked to: 1) Collect Instagram follower data from 10 students and display it in a table. 2) Create a dot plot of the population data. 3) Take 30 random samples of 3 students and calculate the average followers for each. Display these in a table. 4) Create a dot plot of the sample means. The document asks students to compare the two dot plots and explain the differences between them. It also asks students to match histograms of different sampling distributions to their descriptions and explain their reasoning. Finally, it asks students to solve problems about probabilities related to sampling distributions.

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Sherlyn Koming
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© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
109 views

Group Assignment - Sampling Distribution

This document provides instructions for an assignment on sampling distributions. Students are asked to: 1) Collect Instagram follower data from 10 students and display it in a table. 2) Create a dot plot of the population data. 3) Take 30 random samples of 3 students and calculate the average followers for each. Display these in a table. 4) Create a dot plot of the sample means. The document asks students to compare the two dot plots and explain the differences between them. It also asks students to match histograms of different sampling distributions to their descriptions and explain their reasoning. Finally, it asks students to solve problems about probabilities related to sampling distributions.

Uploaded by

Sherlyn Koming
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Assignment 1

Sampling-Distribution

Work as a group (not as individuals sitting in close proximity). It’s important that you have
detailed, thorough discussions, spend time talking through all these questions in detail
(including a careful explanation of your answers), and your “solutions” can be simply a sketch
of those detailed discussions. (I want to ensure you get through all the problems.)
Instruction 1:
Consider a population of just 10 students (you need to reveal their names, matric number and
a snapshot of their Instagram page as a proof that your data is genuine).
These ten students all have Instagram accounts (our assumption). Find the number of
followers for this small population. Tabulate the number of Instagram followers for each of
these students:
Student n (followers)
1
.
.
.
10

Instruction 2:
Illustrate the distribution of the population using dot plot. (You may use Excel or R-
Programming to create the dot plot. You need to report how you do it in Excel or R-
Programming)

Note:
As we discussed in class, the sample average (based on a random sample) is a good
estimator for the population mean (it’s an unbiased estimator, 𝜇𝑥=μ, and its variability,
𝜎 = √𝜎 , decreases as the sample size increases).

Instruction 3:
What is the sampling distribution of the sample average, based on samples of size 3?
To investigate this, 30 different samples (of size 3) were randomly selected from the population
of 30 friends selected (use Excel or R-programming – you need to explain how you do it). Give
the list of the selected students. Tabulate the number of followers from each sample.
Sample n (followers)
1 𝑥1,1, 𝑥2,1, 𝑥3,1
.
.
.
30 𝑥1,30, 𝑥2,30, 𝑥3,30

1
Instruction 4:
For each sample, the sample average, 𝑥 , is computed. Illustrate the distribution of the sample
means using dot plot again.
Note:
The graph will show an estimate of the sampling distribution of 𝑥 (the actual sampling
distribution would show the 𝑥 from all possible samples of size 3 from this population).

Instruction 5:
Consider the two dot plots. How exactly are these dot plots different? For example,
i) what do the dots represent in each plot?, and
ii) how are the shapes of the distributions different?
(You can be quite brief with your answers. This is the warm-up exercise.)

Instruction 6:
Consider four different distributions:
1) The distribution of the number of Instagram follower for a population of 1000 students,
2) the distribution of Instagram follower values for one sample of size 200 (taken from the
population described in 1),
3) the distribution of number-of-Instagram-follower averages for 1000 different samples (all of
size n=10) from the population mentioned in 1, and
4) the distribution of number-of-Instagram-follower averages for 1000 different samples (all of
size n=50) from the population mentioned in 1.
Let say, the four frequency histograms are shown below. Match each histogram with exactly
one of the distributions listed above. Thoughtfully defend your answer for every match (not
just “it was the one leftover”).

2
Instruction 7:
Suppose the distribution of Instagram followers for all students is strongly skewed to the higher
values with mean 120 and standard deviation 73. (Use this information for parts a-c of this
problem.)
a. Based on the methods of analysis you’ve accumulated so far, state explicitly why you
cannot determine the probability that a randomly selected student has more than 100
friends.
b. Now, state exactly why you can determine the probability that the average number of
followers (for a random sample of size 50) is larger than 100.
c. Determine the probability asked for in part b. As part of your solution, draw an
appropriate, well-labelled picture, and for all your calculations explain exactly what you
are doing (e.g., if you use a formula, explain exactly how it helps you solve the problem
and why exactly you “plug in” certain numbers into the equation).

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