A sample of 16 eggs yields a sample mean weight of 3.00 ounces and a sample standard deviation = 0.360 ounces, find the margin of error in estimating a confidence interval estimate at the 90% level of confidence. Round your answer to three decimal places. You may assume that egg weights are normally distribute.

Respuesta :

Answer:

[tex] ME =1.753\frac{0.360}{\sqrt{16}}= 0.158[/tex]

[tex]3-1.753\frac{0.360}{\sqrt{16}}=2.842[/tex]    

[tex]3+1.753\frac{0.360}{\sqrt{16}}=3.158[/tex]    

Step-by-step explanation:

Previous concepts

A confidence interval is "a range of values that’s likely to include a population value with a certain degree of confidence. It is often expressed a % whereby a population means lies between an upper and lower interval".

The margin of error is the range of values below and above the sample statistic in a confidence interval.

Normal distribution, is a "probability distribution that is symmetric about the mean, showing that data near the mean are more frequent in occurrence than data far from the mean".

[tex]\bar X=3[/tex] represent the sample mean for the sample  

[tex]\mu[/tex] population mean (variable of interest)

s=0.360 represent the sample standard deviation

Solution to the problem

The confidence interval for the mean is given by the following formula:

[tex]\bar X \pm t_{\alpha/2}\frac{s}{\sqrt{n}}[/tex]   (1)

In order to calculate the critical value [tex]t_{\alpha/2}[/tex] we need to find first the degrees of freedom, given by:

[tex]df=n-1=16-1=15[/tex]

Since the Confidence is 0.90 or 90%, the value of [tex]\alpha=0.1[/tex] and [tex]\alpha/2 =0.05[/tex], and we can use excel, a calculator or a table to find the critical value. The excel command would be: "=-T.INV(0.05,15)".And we see that [tex]t_{\alpha/2}=1.753[/tex]

The margin of error is given by:

[tex] ME =1.753\frac{0.360}{\sqrt{16}}= 0.158[/tex]

Now we have everything in order to replace into formula (1):

[tex]3-1.753\frac{0.360}{\sqrt{16}}=2.842[/tex]    

[tex]3+1.753\frac{0.360}{\sqrt{16}}=3.158[/tex]    

So on this case the 90% confidence interval would be given by (2.842;3.158)