Interval Estimation Pt.

3
 Confidence Interval for Population Mean,
••  Case 1: when is known

Formula:

where is the z-score corresponding to an area of to

the left of z
 Confidence Interval for Population Mean,
••  Case 1: when is known
Formula:
Common values for :

2.576 1.96 1.645

Example
•   mean for the quality point indices (QPI) of a random sample of 36 students is 2.6. Find
The
the 99% CI for the mean. Assume the population standard deviation to be 0.3.
Solution: 99% CI for the mean
Given: if confidence level is 99% then, ; ; ;

Length:
Interpretation: “We are 99% confident that the true
mean for QPI is between 2.47 and 2.73”
Example
•   mean for the quality point indices (QPI) of a random sample of 36 students is 2.6. Find
The
the 95% CI for the mean. Assume the population standard deviation to be 0.3.
Solution: 95% CI for the mean
Given: if confidence level is 95% then, ; ; ;

Length:
Interpretation: “We are 95% confident that the true
mean for QPI is between 2.50 and 2.70”
 Example
•   mean for the quality point indices (QPI) of a random sample of 36 students is 2.6.
The
Find the 90% CI for the mean. Assume the population standard deviation to be 0.3.
Solution: 90% CI for the mean
Given: if confidence level is 90% then, ; ; ;

Length:
Interpretation: “We are 90% confident that the true mean
for QPI is between 2.52 and 2.68”
•  90% CI
• 95% CI:
• 99% CI:

• As the level of confidence increases, the length of the

interval increases and it gets wider.
Example
Suppose a student measuring the boiling temperature of
a certain liquid observes the following readings: 102.5,
101.7, 103.1, 100.9, 100.5 and 102.2 on 6 different
samples of the liquid. The mean of the sample was
calculated to be 101.82. If the standard deviation for this
procedure is 1.2,
a. construct 90%, 95%, and 99% CI for the population
mean
b. find the length of each interval.
Example
•Construct
  90% CI estimate:
Given: if confidence level is 90% then, ; ; ;

Length:
Interpretation: “We are 90% confident that the true mean
temperature falls between 101.01and 102.63”
Example
•Construct
  95% CI estimate:
Given: if confidence level is 95% then, ; ; ;

Length:
Interpretation: “We are 95% confident that the true mean
temperature falls between 100.86and 102.78”
Example
•Construct
  99% CI estimate:
Given: if confidence level is 99% then, ; ; ;

Length:
Interpretation: “We are 99% confident that the true mean
temperature falls between 100.56and 103.08”
Problems:
A company that manufactures electronic calculators uses a certain
type of plastic. It is known that the breaking strengths of the new
plastic material follow the normal distribution and have a standard
deviation of 10 psi. Six samples of the new plastic materials were
randomly selected and their breaking strengths were determined.
The data obtained were 156, 154, 168, 157, 160 and 158.

a.) Construct 90%,95%, and 99% confidence interval for the true
mean breaking strength of the new plastic material.
b.) Interpret each interval.
 Confidence Interval for Population Mean,
••  Case 2: when is unknown

Formula:

where is the t-value corresponding to an area of with

degrees of freedom n-1
Example:
• The contents of 8 similar bottles of acetic acid are 110, 112, 111, 109,
107, 113, 110, and 109 milliliters. Find a 95% confidence interval for
the mean of all such bottles, assuming an approximate normal
distribution for the population of the acetic acid contents.