Practice Quiz 5 – Version B

Name: ____________________________________ Section: ______________

For every question, write out the necessary formula and show the calculations required to
arrive at your answer. Please round decimal numbers and correct to two decimal places.

Problem 1 (Study time for exams) You are interested in the time students usually spend studying for the final exams. Assume that the
total study time during the final week in the semester among NYUAD students is approximately Normally distributed with mean 𝜇 =
12 hours (a fact that you of course don’t know) and a standard deviation 𝜎 = 4.4 hours (something that you know). You initially plan
to take a simple random sample of size 𝑛 = 50 and compute the average total study time.
a) What is the standard deviation for the average studying time 𝑥̅ in hours? (15 points)
b) Imagine you sample 50 students and calculate an average of 𝑥̅ = 10 hours. Calculate the 95% Confidence Interval. (20 points)
c) Calculate the 80% Confidence Interval. (15 points)
d) You want to use a sample size such that the margin of error for the 95% CI only is 0.5 hours. Should the sample size be larger
or smaller than 50. Briefly explain. (15 points)
e) What standard deviation of 𝑥̅ do you need such that the margin of error for the 95% CI is 0.5 hours? (15 points)
f) Using the standard deviation of 𝑥̅ you calculated in (e), determine the number of students you need to sample such that the
margin of error for the 95% CI is 0.5 hours. (20 points)

Solutions

# &.&
a) 𝜎!̅ = = = 0.62
√% √()
# &.&
b) 𝐶𝐼*( = 𝑥̅ ± 1.96 = 10 ± 1.96 = {8.78; 11.22}
√% √()
# &.&
c) 𝐶𝐼+) = 𝑥̅ ± 1.28 = 10 ± 1.28 = {9.21; 10.79}
√% √()
d) As the margin of error previously was 𝑚 = 1.22, we would need a larger sample size. The larger the sample size, the smaller
the margin of error because sample statistic estimations are more precise.
).(
e) 𝑚 = 𝑧,-./0 𝜎!̅ → 0.5 = 1.96 ∗ 𝜎!̅ → 𝜎!̅ = 1.*2 = 0.255
# &.& &.& &.& 3
f) 𝑚 = 𝑧,-./0 → 0.5 = 1.96 → √𝑛 = 1.96 ).( → 𝑛 = =1.96 ).(> = 297.49
√% √%
or
# &.& 3
0.255 = →𝑛==> = 297.73
√% ).3((
We would need to sample 298 students