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LAB 5

Student Name:

Student ID:

Course Name:

Date:
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1. Include the properly labeled histogram of your bootstrap distribution of sample means at this

point in your assignment. (1 point)

2. Can the “formula” method be used to construct a confidence interval for the mean number of text

messages sent each day for all OSU students? (That is, can a z-score of 2 be used to construct a

95% confidence interval for the population mean?) Why or why not? (Hint: think about the shape of

the bootstrap distribution to answer this question as opposed to how the sample was taken.) (1

point)

The shape of the bootstrap distribution of sample means, taken from 10,000 samples, isslightly right skewed.The

histogram above is still able to use the formula method to create a 95% confidenceinterval. Because the histogram is

only slightly right skewed, the data is still relatively uniformand has the shape of a bell curve. Because of this, we can

use the z-score of 2 and present a 95%confidence interval.

3. Regardless of how you answered question 2, use the appropriate values from your summary

statistics of the sample data and your bootstrap distribution to construct a 95% confidence interval

for the average number of text messages sent per day for all OSU students using the formula

method. Write the confidence interval in proper syntax. (Show your work in obtaining the bounds of

this interval.) (2 points)

mean of population= 43.43251

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SD of bootstrap sample mean= 4.398392

Confidence interval=
43.43251+ or – 2(4.398392)

43.43251 + or – 8.7968

Proper syntax= (34.63571, 52.22931)

4. Interpret the confidence interval from question 3 in the context of the problem. (3 points)

The intervals used are very close, the fact that they are different represents the fact that the shape of the data is not

perfectly distributed. Because the data is skewed to the right slightly, the percentile method will have bounds slightly

greater then the formula method (the skewness pulls it toward the skew because we are using percentages).

5. If a friend of yours said that the average OSU student sends over 50 text messages in a day, what

would you tell him/her based on your confidence interval? Why would you tell your friend this? (2

points)

I would tell my friend that I conducted a survey and took a random sample of OSU students. Because I took the random

sample, it could represent the entire population of OSU. Then, I also took a distribution of sample means, which means

I took a mean sample of the population data. Then I took a bootstrap sample, which takes large numbers of the

population are put into smaller samples of equal size and drawn numerous times from the single sample. I can also

explain that the data was relatively uniform and could be used to create an interval that I could confident to say that a

mean amount could fall between.

6. Explain why you should be cautious in using your data to make an inference to all OSU students.

(1 point)

One thing to be careful of is that this is a confidence interval. This means you are confident for 95% of the population.
There are still 5 percent that could be out of the norm. Some might also not have a phone, and we must also be careful
of problems such as bias when retrieving data from a survey. Students could have had nonresponse bias, or response
bias.
7. What is the variable of interest? Is it categorical or quantitative? (1 point)

The variable of interest would be whether or not a OSU student has texted while driving. The variable would be

categorical.

8. What proportion of students in the sample have texted while driving? (1 point)

364 total students took the survey, and 270 said they texted while driving. Thus the proportion of students who texted

and drove is 74.

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9. Include the properly labeled histogram of your bootstrap distribution of sample proportions at

this point in your assignment. (1 point)

10. Can the “formula” method be used to construct a 95% confidence interval for the population

proportion? Explain. (Hint: what shape does the distribution of sample proportions have?) (1 point)

The shape of the histogram shown above is normally distributed. This will allow us to create a confidence interval,

more specifically a 90% confidence interval. You can use the formula method because there are plenty of means pulled

and averaged so you can be confident that the confidence interval will be close.

11. Regardless of your answer to question 10, use appropriate values from the output to construct a

95% confidence interval for the population proportion of all OSU students who have sent a text

message while driving using the “formula” method. Show your work. Write the confidence interval

in proper syntax. (3 points)

Mean of sample: .7418

standard deviation of bootstrap proportion: .0232

z score of 90% confidence interval: 1.645

.7418∓1.645 (.0232)

.7418−.0382
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.7418+.0382(.7036, .7800)

12. Interpret your confidence interval in the context of the problem. (2 points)

We are 90% confident that the proportion of OSU students that text while they drive is between .7036 and .78.

13. One study reported that 52% of college students have texted while driving (Science Daily,

January 19, 2016) Based on your confidence interval, do you feel that the reported percentage is

accurate? Explain. (1 point)

Based on the confidence interval, I would say that the study of 52% is not accurate. Students at OSU could possibly

represent the population, considering they live up to almost the same standards and have the same age group around

campuses in America. Considering I took a couple thousand samples and find a proportion of .7036 and .78 (which is

70.36 and 78%), it would say that 52% isn’t quite accurate. However, We took a sample strictly from OSU students, so

we can confidently speak for OSU students, but it would be inaccurate to speak for the rest of college students based on

our data.