Questions for Review Session 3 - December 14 at 4:00pm

Meeting ID: 516 624 3700

Passcode: 559320

Question 1

A medical researcher wishes to estimate the mean, 𝜇, of blood pressure for women aged 50-59
years. Accordingly, she measures the blood pressure of 100 randomly selected women in their
fifties and obtains a sample mean of 141.8 mm. From prior experience, she believes that the
population standard deviation to be 10.4 mm Hg. Determine a 98% confidence interval for the
mean blood pressure of women in their fifties.

Question 2

A representative sample of 150 kernels of wheat was selected from a conveyor belt during the
loading of a lot (consisting of several tonnes of Canadian Western soft white spring wheat) into
the cargo hold of a ship. To estimate the proportion of wheat kernels in the lot that were infected
with the fungus fusarium graminearum, each kernel from the sample was incubated in an agar
gel on a petri dish. After ten days, six of the 150 kernels were found to have been infected.
a. Determine a 90% confidence interval for the proportion of infected wheat kernels in the
lot. What is the length of the interval? Interpret the interval.
b. Determine a 95% confidence interval for the proportion of infected wheat kernels in the
lot. What is the length of the interval?
c. Determine a 99% confidence interval for the proportion of infected wheat kernels in the
lot. What is the length of the interval?
d. Which of the three confidence intervals is shortest? Which is longest?
Question 3

A psychologist is investigating the reaction time of infants to an auditory stimulus. Assuming

that reaction times follow a normal distribution with standard deviation 0.04 seconds, how large
a sample would be required:
a. to be 80% confidence for that the sample mean reaction time will not differ from the true
mean by more than 0.01?
b. to be 90% confidence for that the sample mean reaction time will not differ from the true
mean by more than 0.01?
c. to be 80% confidence for that the sample mean reaction time will not differ from the true
mean by more than 0.02?
d. to be 90% confidence for that the sample mean reaction time will not differ from the true
mean by more than 0.02?

Question 4

A survey is to be conducted to estimate the proportion of adult Manitobans who have smoked
marijuana. Determine how large the sample should be, so that with 90 percent confidence, the
sample proportion will not differ from the true proportion by more than 0.03.

Question 5

A survey is to be conducted to estimate the proportion of adult Manitobans who have smoked
marijuana. An earlier survey estimated the true proportion to be 0.70. Determine how large the
sample should be, so that with 90 percent confidence, the sample proportion will not differ from
the true proportion by more than 0.03.
Question 6

A survey is to be conducted to estimate the proportion of adult Manitobans who have smoked
marijuana. A panel of experts estimates the true proportion to be between 0.60 and 0.80.
Determine how large the sample should be, so that with 90 percent confidence, the sample
proportion will not differ from the true proportion by more than 0.03.

Question 7

A sensor detects an electric charge each time a turbine blade makes one rotation and then measures
the amplitude of the electric current. The following eight readings were obtained for a certain
setting of speed of rotation of the blades and the gap between the blades.

26.9 30.1 28.9 25.5 23.6 29.9 24.7 30.0

a) State the assumptions that are required to construct a confidence interval.

b) Under the assumptions that you made in part (a), use a 98 percent confidence interval to
estimate the true mean amplitude of the electric current for the given setting.
c) What would happen to the width of the confidence interval if the level of confidence is
decreased?