AP Stats

7.1 Homework

Identify the population, parameter, sample, and statistic in each setting.

1. Healthy living:
a) A random sample of 1000 people who signed a card saying they intended to quit smoking were
contacted 9 months later. It turned out that 210 (21%) of the sampled individuals had not smoked over the
past 6 months.

Population-

Parameter-

Sample-

Statistic-

b) Tom is cooking a large turkey breast for a holiday meal. He wants to be sure that the turkey is safe to eat,
which requires a minimum internal temperature of 165oF. Tom uses a thermometer to measure the
temperature of the turkey meat at four randomly chosen points. The minimum reading in the sample is
170oF.

Population-

Parameter-

Sample-

Statistic-
State whether the number listed is a parameter or statistic and use appropriate notation to describe each
number.

2. Get your bearings: A large container is full of ball bearings with mean diameter 2.5003 cm. This is
within the specifications for acceptance of the container by the purchaser. By chance, an inspector chooses
100 bearings from the container that have mean diameter 2.5009 cm. Because this is outside the specified
limits, the container is mistakenly rejected.

2.5003 cm=

2.5009 cm=

3. Unlisted numbers: A telemarketing firm in a large city uses a device that dials residential telephone
numbers in that city at random. Of the first 100 numbers dialed, 48% are unlisted. This is not surprising
because 52% of all residential phones in the city are unlisted.

48%=

52%=

Refer to the small population {2, 6, 8, 10, 10, 12} with mean 𝜇 = 8 and range 10.

4. Sampling distribution: List all 15 possible SRSs of size n = 2 from the population. Find the value of 𝑥̅ for
each sample.
a) Make a graph of the sampling distribution of 𝑥̅ .

b) Describe what you see.

5. Doing homework A school newspaper article claims that 60% of the students at a large high school did
all their assigned homework last week. Some skeptical AP® Statistics students want to investigate whether
this claim is true, so they choose an SRS of 100 students from the school to interview. What values of the
sample proportion 𝑝̂ would be consistent with the claim that the population proportion of students who
completed all their homework is p = 0.60? To find out, we used Fathom software to simulate choosing 250
SRSs of size n = 100 students from a population in which p = 0.60. The figure below is a dotplot of the
sample proportion 𝑝̂ of students who did all their homework.

a) There is one dot on the graph at 0.73. Explain what this value represents.

b) Describe the distribution. Are there any obvious outliers?

c) Would it be surprising to get a sample proportion of 0.45 or lower in an SRS of size 100 when p = 0.6?
Justify your answer.

d) Suppose that 45 of the 100 students in the actual sample say that they did all their homework last week.
What would you conclude about the newspaper article’s claim? Explain.
During the winter months, outside temperatures at the Starneses’ cabin in Colorado can stay well below
freezing (32°F, or 0°C) for weeks at a time. To prevent the pipes from freezing, Mrs. Starnes sets the
thermostat at 50°F. The manufacturer claims that the thermostat allows variation in home temperature that
follows a Normal distribution with σ = 3°F. To test this claim, Mrs. Starnes programs her digital
thermometer to take an SRS of n = 10 readings during a 24-hour period. Suppose the thermostat is working
properly and that the actual temperatures in the cabin vary according to a Normal distribution with mean μ
= 50°F and standard deviation σ = 3°F.

6. Cold cabin? The Fathom screen shot shows the results of taking 500 SRSs of 10 temperature readings
from a population distribution that is N(50, 3) and recording the sample variance 𝑠!" each time.
a) Describe the approximate sampling distribution.

b) Suppose that the variance from an actual sample is 𝑠!" = 25. What would you conclude about the
thermostat manufacturer’s claim? Explain.

7. A sample of teens: A study of the health of teenagers plans to measure the blood cholesterol levels of an
SRS of 13- to 16-year-olds. The researchers will report the mean 𝑥̅ from their sample as an estimate of the
mean cholesterol level μ in this population. Explain to someone who knows little about statistics what it
means to say that 𝑥̅ is an unbiased estimator of μ.
8. A sample of teens: Refer to Exercise 7. The sample mean 𝑥̅ is an unbiased estimator of the population
mean μ no matter what size SRS the study chooses. Explain to someone who knows nothing about statistics
why a large random sample will give more trustworthy results than a small random sample.

9. Bias and variability: The figure below shows histograms of four sampling distributions of different
statistics intended to estimate the same parameter.

a) Which statistics are unbiased estimators? Justify your answer.

b) Which statistic does the best job of estimating the parameter? Explain.
Multiple choice.
10. At a particular college, 78% of all students are receiving some kind of financial aid. The school
newspaper selects a random sample of 100 students and 72% of the respondents say they are receiving
some sort of financial aid. Which of the following is true?
a) 78% is a population and 72% is a sample.
b) 72% is a population and 78% is a sample.
c) 78% is a parameter and 72% is a statistic.
d) 72% is a parameter and 78% is a statistic.
e) 78% is a parameter and 100 is a statistic.

11. A statistic is an unbiased estimator of a parameter when

a) the statistic is calculated from a random sample.
b) in a single sample, the value of the statistic is equal to the value of the parameter.
c) in many samples, the values of the statistic are very close to the value of the parameter.
d) in many samples, the values of the statistic are centered at the value of the parameter.
e) in many samples, the distribution of the statistic has a shape that is approximately Normal.

12. In a residential neighborhood, the median value of a house is $200,000. For which of the following
sample sizes is the sample median most likely to be above $250,000?
a) n = 10
b) n = 50
c) n = 100
d) n = 1000
e) Impossible to determine without more information.

13. Increasing the sample size of an opinion poll will reduce the
a) bias of the estimates made from the data collected in the poll.
b) variability of the estimates made from the data collected in the poll.
c) effect of nonresponse on the poll.
d) variability of opinions in the sample.
e) variability of opinions in the population.

14. Which of the following must be true for an estimator of a population parameter to be unbiased?
a) The sampling distribution of the estimator is normal.
b) The expected value of the estimator is equal to the population parameter.
c) The sampling distribution of the estimator is the same shape as the distribution of the
population parameter.
d) The variability of the sampling distribution of the estimator is equal to the variability of the
population parameter.
e) The variability of the sampling distribution of the estimator is less than the variability of the
population parameter.
a) Both X and Y are unbiased.
b) Both X and Y are biased.
c) X is biased, and Y is unbiased.
d) X is unbiased, and Y is biased.
e)The assessment of bias is not possible, because the sampling distributions display too much variability.