Week 8 Tutorial

1. What is wrong? Explain what is wrong in each of the following scenarios.

a. If the variance of a population is 10, then the variance of the mean for an SRS (Simple Random
Sample) of 30 observations from this population will be 10/√30.
b. The mean of a sampling distribution of 𝑥̅ changes when the sample size changes.
c. The central limit theorem states that for large n, µ is approximately Normal.
d. The mean of sample means is always greater than population mean.

2. Identify whether probability or non-probability sampling method is used in each case. Explain your
answers.
a. In a study of stroke outcomes, we may group the population by gender, to ensure equal
representation of men and women. The study sample is then obtained by taking equal sample sizes from
each stratum.
b. You want to know about average time students are spending to study ISDS and you sent the survey
link in WIUT Telegram group.
c. When carrying out a survey of risk behaviors amongst intravenous drug users, participants
may be asked to nominate other users to be interviewed.
d. You want to study the quality of education in international universities in Uzbekistan, but you
have no sufficient funds to visit all university campuses. Instead, you randomly chose 3 universities out
of all international universities in Uzbekistan.

3. Identify the type of probability sampling design in each of the following situations.
a. The selection of 200 people to serve as potential jurors in a medical malpractice trial is conducted
by assigning a number to each of 140,000 registered voters in the county. A computer software program
is used to randomly select 200 numbers from the numbers 1 to 140,000. The people having these 200
numbers are sent a postcard notifying them of their selection for jury duty.
b. Suppose you are selecting microchips from a production line for inspection for bent probes. As the
chips proceed past the inspection point, every 100th chip is selected for inspection.
c. The Internal Revenue Service wants to estimate the amount of personal deductions taxpayers made
based on the type of deduction: home office, state income tax, property taxes, property losses, and
charitable contributions. The amount claimed in each of these categories varies greatly depending on the
adjusted gross income of the taxpayer. Therefore, a simple random sample would not be an efficient

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design. The IRS decides to divide taxpayers into five groups based on their adjusted gross incomes and
then takes a simple random sample of taxpayers from each of the five groups.
d. The USDA inspects produce for E. coli contamination. As trucks carrying produce cross the border,
the truck is stopped for inspection. A random sample of five containers is selected for inspection from
the hundreds of containers on the truck. Every apple in each of the five containers is then inspected for
E. coli.

4. You want to find out what percentage of undergrad WIUT students are working full-time aside
from their studies. You are planning to conduct your survey on 150 students. It is possible that higher
level students might be more likely to be working than lower level students. Therefore, you decided to
use stratified random sampling to collect your sample data. Suppose the following table describes the
undergrad student distribution at WIUT. How many students would you select from each level?

Course Level # of Students Sample Size

Level 3 1100

Level 4 1400

Level 5 1300

Level 6 1200

5. Human Resource Consulting (HRC) surveyed a random sample of 60 construction companies in

Uzbekistan to find information on the costs of their health care plans. One of the items being tracked is
the annual deductible that employees must pay. The Ministry of Labor reports that historically the mean
deductible amount per employee is $502 with a standard deviation of $100.
a. Compute the standard error of the sample mean for HRC.
b. What is the chance HRC finds a sample mean between $477 and $527?
c. [Optional] Calculate the likelihood that the sample mean is between $492 and $512.
d. What is the probability the sample mean is greater than $550?

6. According to an IRS study, it takes a mean of 330 minutes for taxpayers to prepare, copy, and
electronically file a 1040 tax form. This distribution of times follows the normal distribution and the

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standard deviation is 80 minutes. A consumer watchdog agency selects a random sample of 40
taxpayers.
a. What is the standard error of the mean in this example?
b. What is the probability the sample mean is greater than 320 minutes?
c. What is the probability the sample mean is between 320 and 350 minutes?
d. What is the probability the sample mean is greater than 340 minutes if it is known to be less than 350
minutes?

7. A study involving stress is done on a college campus among the students. The stress scores follow a
uniform distribution with the lowest stress score equal to 1 and the highest equal to 5. Using a sample of
40 students, find:
a. The probability that the average stress score for the 40 students is less than 2.5.
b. The 90th percentile for the average stress score for the sample of 40 students.

HOMEWORK

8. Refer to The Sport Journal (Winter, 2007) analysis of critical part failures at NASCAR races, Recall
that researchers found that the time x (in hours) until the first critical part failure is exponentially
distributed with µ = 0.10 and  = 0.10. Now, consider a random sample of n = 50 NASCAR races and
let 𝑥̅ represent the sample mean time until the first critical part failure.
a. Find E(𝑥̅ ) and Var(𝑥̅ ).
b. Find the probability that the sample mean time until the first critical part failure exceeds 0.13 hour.

9. A random sample of n = 100 observations is selected from a population with µ = 30 and σ = 16.

a. Find µ ̅ and 𝜎 ̅ .
b. Describe the shape of the sampling distribution of 𝑥̅ .
c. Find P(𝑋 ≥ 28).
d. Find P(22.1 ≤ 𝑋 ≤ 26.8)

10. Information from the American Institute of Insurance indicates the mean amount of life insurance
per household in the United States is $165,000. This distribution follows the normal distribution with a
standard deviation of $40,000. If we select a random sample of 49 households,
a. What is the standard error of the mean?
b. What is the probability of selecting a sample with a mean of at least $167,000?
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11. The length of time, in hours, it takes an "over 40" group of people to play one soccer match is
normally distributed with a mean of 2 hours and a standard deviation of 0.5 hours. A sample of size n
= 50 is drawn randomly from the population. Find the probability that the sample mean is between 1.8
hours and 2.3 hours.

12. Suppose that a market research analyst for a cell phone company conducts a study of their
customers who exceed the time allowance included on their basic cell phone contract; the analyst finds
that for those people who exceed the time included in their basic contract, the excess time used follows
a normal distribution with a mean of 20 minutes and standard deviation of 10 minutes. Find the
probability that the average excess time used by the 16 customers in the sample is longer than 25
minutes.