STA 32101: Estimation F.

Chamera March 2023

1. Calculate the margin of error in estimating a population mean µ

for n = 50 and s2 = 4.
2. A corporation monitors time spent by office workers browsing the
web on their computers instead of working. In a sample of com-
puter records of 50 workers, the average amount of time spent
browsing in an eight-hour work day was 27.8 minutes with stan-
dard deviation 8.2 minutes. Construct a 99.5% confidence interval
for the mean time spent by all office workers in browsing the web
in an eight-hour day.
3. Independent random samples of n1 = 1265 and n2 = 1688 ob-
servations were selected from binomial populations 1 and 2, and
x1 = 849 and x2 = 910 successes were observed.
(a) Find the 99% confidence interval for the difference (p1 − p2 ) in
the two population proportions.
(b) Based on this confidence interval, can you conclude that there
is a difference in the two binomial proportions?
4. A sample of 250 workers aged 16 and older produced an average
length of time with the current employer (“job tenure”) of 4.4 years
with standard deviation 3.8 years. Construct a 99.9% confidence
interval for the mean job tenure of all workers aged 16 or older.
5. Calculate the margin of error in estimating a binomial proportion
p using samples of size n = 100 and p = 0.3.
6. A government agency was charged by the legislature with estimat-
ing the length of time it takes citizens to fill out various forms.
Two hundred randomly selected adults were timed as they filled
out a particular form. The times required had mean 12.8 minutes
with standard deviation 1.7 minutes. Construct a 90% confidence
interval for the mean time taken for all adults to fill out this form.
STA 32101: Estimation F. Chamera March 2023

7. The number of hours per day that a television set was operating
was recorded for a randomly selected collection of households, with
the results shown in the table.
3.7 4.2 1.5 3.6 5.9 4.7 8.2 3.9 2.5 4.4
2.1 3.6 1.1 7.3 4.2 3.0 3.8 2.2 4.2 3.8
4.3 2.1 2.4 6.0 3.7 2.5 1.3 2.8 3.0 5.6

Construct a 98% confidence interval for the mean number of hours

that a television set is in operation in all households.
8. A random sample of size 144 is drawn from a population whose
distribution, mean, and standard deviation are all unknown. The
summary statistics are x̄ = 58.2 and s = 2.6.
(a) Construct an 80% confidence interval for the population mean.
(b) Construct a 90% confidence interval for the population mean.
(c) Comment on why one interval is longer than the other.
9. A small amount of the trace element selenium, 50-200 micrograms
(mg) per day, is considered essential to good health. Suppose that
random samples of n1 = n2 = 30 adults were selected from two
regions of the United States and that a day’s intake of selenium,
from both liquids and solids, was recorded for each person. The
mean and standard deviation of the selenium daily intakes for the
30 adults from region 1 were x¯1 = 167.1 and s1 = 24.3 mg, respec-
tively. The corresponding statistics for the 30 adults from region
2 were x¯2 = 140.9 and s2 = 17.6. Find a 95% confidence interval
for the difference in the mean selenium intakes for the two regions.
Interpret this interval.
10. A random sample of n = 50 observations from quantitative popu-
lation produced x̄ = 56.4 and s2 = 2.6. Give the best estimate for
the population mean µ, and find the margin of error.

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STA 32101: Estimation F. Chamera March 2023

11. A random sample of n = 900 observations from binomial popula-

tion produced x = 655 successes. Estimate the binomial proportion
p and calculate the margin of error.

12. Four hundred randomly selected working adults in a certain state,

including those who worked at home, were asked the distance from
their home to their workplace. The average distance was 8.84 miles
with standard deviation 2.70 miles. Construct a 99% confidence
interval for the mean distance from home to work for all residents
of this state.

13. A college athletic program wishes to estimate the average increase

in the total weight an athlete can lift in three different lifts after
following a particular training program for six weeks. Twenty-five
randomly selected athletes when placed on the program exhibited
a mean gain of 47.3 g with standard deviation 6.4 g. Construct
a 90% confidence interval for the mean increase in lifting capacity
all athletes would experience if placed on the training program.
Assume increases among all athletes are normally distributed.

14. In a random sample of 250 employed people, 61 said that they

bring work home with them at least occasionally.
(a) Give a point estimate of the proportion of all employed people
who bring work home with them at least occasionally and the
margin of error.
(b) Construct a 99% confidence interval for that proportion.

15. Suppose 250 randomly selected people are surveyed to determine

if they own a tablet. Of the 250 surveyed, 98 reported owning a
tablet. Using a 95% confidence level, compute a confidence interval
estimate for the true proportion of people who own tablets.

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STA 32101: Estimation F. Chamera March 2023

16. Suppose that a market research firm is hired to estimate the percent
of adults living in a large city who have cell phones. Five hundred
randomly selected adult residents in this city are surveyed to de-
termine whether they have cell phones. Of the 500 people sampled,
421 responded yes - they own cell phones. Using a 95% confidence
level, compute a confidence interval estimate for the true propor-
tion of adult residents of this city who have cell phones.

17. The coach of two different college ice hockey teams conducted two
studies, one on each of his teams. The study on the first team
reveals that for a simple random sample of 30 players, the mean
number of goals scored by each player in the previous season was
5.2 goals with a standard deviation of 1.4. The study on the second
team reveals that for a simple random sample of 30 players, the
mean number of goals scored by each player in the previous season
was 3.8 goals with a standard deviation of 2.1. If a confidence
interval estimating the difference of the two-population means was
to be constructed for this scenario, are all the conditions met?

18. A financial officer for a company wants to estimate the percent of

accounts receivable that are more than 30 days overdue. He surveys
500 accounts and finds that 300 are more than 30 days overdue.
Compute a 90% confidence interval for the true percent of accounts
receivable that are more than 30 days overdue, and interpret the
confidence interval.

19. We take a random sample of 50 households in order to estimate

the percentage of all homes in Lilongwe that have a refrigerator. It
turns out that 49 of the 50 homes in our sample have a refrigera-
tor. Can we use the normal random variable to make a confidence
interval in this situation?

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20. A student polls his school to see if students in the school district
are for or against the new legislation regarding school uniforms.
She surveys 600 students and finds that 480 are against the new
legislation.
(a) Compute a 90% confidence interval for the true percent of
students who are against the new legislation, and interpret
the confidence interval.
(b) In a sample of 300 students, 68% said they own an iPod and a
smart phone. Compute a 97% confidence interval for the true
percent of students who own an iPod and a smartphone.

21. A security feature on some web pages is graphic representations of

words that are readable by human beings but not machines. When
a certain design format was tested on 450 subjects, by having them
attempt to read ten disguised words, 448 subjects could read all
the words.
(a) Give a point estimate of the proportion p of all people who
could read words disguised in this way and the margin of error.
(b) Show that the sample is not sufficiently large to construct a
confidence interval for the proportion of all people who could
read words disguised in this way.

22. For each of 40 high school students in one county the number of
days absent from school in the previous year were counted, with
the results shown in the frequency table.

x 0 1 2 3 4 5
f 24 7 5 2 1 1

Construct a 90% confidence interval for the average number of days

absent from school of all students in the county.

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STA 32101: Estimation F. Chamera March 2023

23. An internet service provider sampled 540 customers, and found

that 75 of them experienced an interruption in high-speed service
during the previous month.
(a) Find a point estimate for the population proportion of all cus-
tomers who experienced an interruption and the margin of
error.
(b) Construct a 90% confidence interval for the proportion of all
customers who experienced an interruption. (Include checking
that all of the assumptions are satisfied!).
(c) The company’s quality control manager claims that no more
than 10% of its customers experienced an interruption during
the previous month. Doe the confidence interval contradict
this claim? Explain
24. The Dundee Dog Training School has a larger than average pro-
portion of clients who compete in competitive professional events.
A confidence interval for the population proportion of dogs that
compete in professional events from 150 different training schools
is constructed. The lower limit is determined to be 0.08 and the
upper limit is determined to be 0.16. Determine the level of confi-
dence used to construct the interval of the population proportion
of dogs that compete in professional events.
25. A random sample of n = 300 observations from a binomial popu-
lation produced x = 263 successes. Find a 90% confidence interval
for p and interpret the interval.
26. The amount of a particular biochemical substance related to bone
breakdown was measured in 30 healthy women. The sample mean
and standard deviation were 3.3 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL)
and 1.4 ng/mL. Construct an 80% confidence interval for the mean
level of this substance in all healthy women.

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STA 32101: Estimation F. Chamera March 2023

27. You do a survey of 40 small town coffee shops and 49 big city
coffee shops, and find that the mean price of a large cup of coffee
is K3.75 and in the big cities it is K4.50. You also know that the
population standard deviation in small towns is 1.20, and in big
cities the population standard deviation of 0.98. Construct a 99%
confidence interval for the difference of their two means, and draw
conclusions from it.

28. A corporation that owns apartment complexes wishes to estimate

the average length of time residents remain in the same apartment
before moving out. A sample of 150 rental contracts gave a mean
length of occupancy of 3.7 years with standard deviation 1.2 years.
Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean length of occu-
pancy of apartments owned by this corporation.

29. Develop a 95% confidence interval to estimate the difference in

math scores from students at ODL and city campus of LUANAR.
A sample of 45 students from ODL had an average score of 56
with a standard deviation of 11 while a sample of 40 city campus
students had an average score of 53 with a standard deviation of
15.

30. Geologists are interested in shifts and movements of the earth’s

surface indicated by fractures (cracks) in the earth’s crust. One of
the most famous large fractures is the San Andreas fault in Califor-
nia. A geologist attempting to study the movement of the relative
shifts in the earth’s crust at a particular location found many frac-
tures in the local rock structure. In an attempt to determine the
mean angle of the breaks, she sampled n = 50 fractures and found
the sample mean and standard deviation to be 39.8◦ and 17.2◦ ,
respectively. Estimate the mean angular direction of the fractures
and find the margin of error for your estimate.

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STA 32101: Estimation F. Chamera March 2023

31. An experiment was conducted to compare two diets A and B de-

signed for weight reduction. Two groups of 30 overweight dieters
each were randomly selected. One group was placed on diet A and
the other on diet B, and their weight losses were recorded over a 30-
day period. The means and standard deviations of the weight-loss
measurements for the two groups are shown in the table.

Diet A Diet B
Mean (x̄) 21.3 13.4
Standard Deviation (s) 2.6 1.9

Find a 95% confidence interval for the difference in mean weight

loss for the two diets. Interpret your confidence interval.

32. A medical researcher conjectures that smoking can result in the

wrinkled skin around the eyes. The researcher recruited 150 smok-
ers and 250 nonsmokers to take part in an observational study and
found that 95 of the smokers and 105 of the nonsmokers were seen
to have prominent wrinkles around the eyes (based on a standard-
ized wrinkle score administered by a person who did not know if the
subject smoked or not). Construct the 95% CI for the difference
in the two population proportions.

33. In a study of the relationship between birth order and college suc-
cess, an investigator found that 126 in a sample of 180 college
graduates were firstborn or only children. In a sample of 100 non-
graduates of comparable age and socioeconomic background, the
number of firstborn or only children was 54. Estimate the differ-
ence between the proportions of firstborn or only children in the
two populations from which these samples were drawn. Use a 90%
confidence interval and interpret your results.

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STA 32101: Estimation F. Chamera March 2023

34. The department of code enforcement of a county government is-

sues permits to general contractors to work on residential projects.
For each permit issued, the department inspects the result of the
project and gives a “pass” or “fail” rating. A failed project must
be re-inspected until it receives a pass rating. The department had
been frustrated by the high cost of re-inspection and decided to
publish the inspection records of all contractors on the web. It
was hoped that public access to the records would lower the re-
inspection rate. A year after the web access was made public, two
samples of records were randomly selected. One sample was se-
lected from the pool of records before the web publication and one
after. The proportion of projects that passed on the first inspection
was noted for each sample. The results are n1 = 500, n2 = 100,
pˆ1 = 0.67 and pˆ2 = 0.80. Construct a point estimate and a 90%
confidence interval for the difference in the passing rate on first
inspection between the two time periods.

35. In a study to compare the effects of two pain relievers it was found
that of n1 = 200 randomly selected individuals instructed to use
the first pain reliever, 93% indicated that it relieved their pain.
Of n2 = 450 randomly selected individuals instructed to use the
second pain reliever, 96% indicated that it relieved their pain.
(a) Find a 99% confidence interval for the difference in the propor-
tions experiencing relief from pain for these two pain relievers.
(b) Based on this confidence interval, is there sufficient evidence
to indicate a difference in the proportions experiencing relief
for the two pain relievers?

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