TUTORIALS 2 (Confidence interval for population proportions and variance)

1. In a random sample of 1000 homes in a certain city, it is found that 228 are heated by oil.
The research claims that the proportion of homes heated by oil is 0.2.

(a) Find 99% confidence intervals for the proportion of homes in this city that are
heated by oil and use it to determine if the researcher’s claim is valid or not.

(b) How large a sample is needed if we wish to be 99% confident that our sample
proportion will be within 0.05 of the true proportion of homes in the city that are heated
by oil?

2. In a manufacturing process, it is found that a sample of size 100 yields 8 defectives items.

(a) Compute 95% confidence intervals for the proportion of defective items.

(b) How large a sample is needed if we wish to be 98% confident that our sample
proportion will be within 0.05 of the true proportion defective?

3. A random sample of 200 voters in a town is selected, and 114 are found to support an
annexation suit.

(a) Find the 96% confidence interval for the fraction of the voting population favoring
the suit.

(b) What can we assert with 96% confidence about the possible size of our error if we
estimate the fraction of voters favoring the annexation suit to be 0.57?

(c) How large a sample is needed if we wish to be 96% confident that our sample
proportion will be within 0.02 of the true fraction of the voting population?

4. A manufacturer of MP3 players conducts a set of comprehensive tests on the electrical

functions of its product. All MP3 players must pass all tests prior to being sold. Of a random
sample of 500 MP3 players, 15 failed one or more tests. Find a 90% confidence interval
for the proportion of MP3 players from the population that passes all tests.
5. A geneticist is interested in the proportion of African males who have a certain minor blood
disorder. In a random sample of 100 African males, 24 are found to be afflicted.

(a) Compute a 99% confidence interval for the proportion of African males who have this
blood disorder.

(b) What can we assert with 99% confidence about the possible size of our error if we
estimate the proportion of African males with this blood disorder to be 0.24?

6. According to a report in the Roanoke Times & World-News, approximately 2/3 of 1600
adults polled by telephone said they think the space shuttle program is a good investment
for the country.

(a) ) Find a 95% confidence interval for the proportion of American adults who think the
space shuttle program is a good investment for the country.

(b) What can we assert with 95% confidence about the possible size of our error if we
estimate the proportion of American adults who think the space shuttle program is a
good investment to be 2/3?

(c) If 32% of the 1600 adults polled said, the U.S. space program should emphasize
scientific exploration. How large a sample of adults is needed for the poll if one wishes
to be 95% confident that the estimated percentage will be within 2% of the true
percentage?

7. A conjecture by a faculty member in the microbiology department at Washington

University School of Dental Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, states that a couple of cups
of either green or oolong tea each day will provide sufficient fluoride to protect your teeth
from decay. How large a sample is needed to estimate the percentage of citizens in a certain
town who favor having their water fluoridated if one wishes to be at least 99% confident
that the estimate is within 1% of the true percentage?

8. A study is to be made to estimate the percentage of citizens in a town who favor having
their water fluoridated. How large a sample is needed if one wishes to be at least 95%
confident that the estimate is within 1% of the true percentage?
9. A study is to be made to estimate the proportion of residents of a certain city and its suburbs
who favor the construction of a nuclear power plant near the city. How large a sample is
needed if one wishes to be at least 95% confident that the estimate is within 0.04 of the
true proportion of residents who favor the construction of the nuclear power plant?

10. A random sample of 20 students yielded a mean of 72 and a variance of 16 for scores on a
college placement test in mathematics. Assuming the scores to be normally distributed,
construct a 98% confidence interval for σ2.
11. A machine is used to fill boxes with product in an assembly line operation. Much concern
centers around the variability in the number of ounces of product in a box. The standard
deviation in weight of product is known to be 0.3 ounce. An improvement is implemented,
after which a random sample of 20 boxes is selected and the sample variance is found to
be 0.045 ounce2. Find a 95% confidence interval on the variance in the weight of the
product. Does it appear from the range of the confidence interval that the improvement of
the process enhanced quality as far as variability is concerned? Assume normality on the
distribution of weights of product.
 Tutorials (To be submitted for marking): TOTAL MARKS=30

(Submission date is Tuesday 10 May 2022).

1. According to a report in the Roanoke Times & World-News, approximately 1/3 of 1600
adults polled by telephone said they think the space shuttle program is a good investment
for the country.

(a) Compute a 95% upper bound on the proportion defective. [4 marks]

(b) What can we assert with 95% confidence about the possible size of our error if we
estimate the proportion of American adults who think the space shuttle program is
a good investment to be 1/3? [3 marks]

(c) If 50% of the 1600 adults polled said, the U.S. space program should emphasize
scientific exploration. How large a sample of adults is needed for the poll if one
wishes to be 95% confident that the estimated percentage will be within 2% of the
true percentage? [3 marks]

2. A psychologist believes that 20% of women and men who dates multiple partners before
marriage tends to divorce within the second anniversary of the marriages due to insecurity
or lack of sexual satisfaction. He believes that counselling of such couples before marriage
improves the divorce rate. After 100 couples were counselled and observed in the first 2
years of the marriages, the counsellor noticed that 18 out of the 100 marriages led to divorce
within the period of observation. At 95% confidence level, would you conclude that
counselling before marriage improves divorce rate as asserted by the psychologist?. [Note
you are first required to construct a confidence interval]. [5 marks]
3. A manufacturer of car batteries claims that the batteries will last, on average, 3 years with
a variance of 1 year. Assuming that the population of battery lives to be approximately
normally distributed if 5 of these batteries have lifetimes of 1.9, 2.4, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.2 years
(a) Construct a 95% confidence interval for σ2 and decide if the manufacturer’s claim that
2  1 is valid. [9 marks]
(b) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the population mean and decide if the
manufacturer’s claim that μ = 3 is valid. [6 marks]