8. Sampling Distributions & Confidence Intervals: Proportion

One-Sided Confidence Interval A one-sided claim about a population proportion is a claim that the proportion is less than (or greater than) some specific value. Such a claim can be formally addressed using a one-sided confidence interval for p, which can be expressed as p<p+E or p>p-E, where the margin of error E is modified by replacing za/2 with za. (Instead of dividing between two tails of the standard normal distribution, put all of it in one tail.) The Chapter Problem refers to a Sallie Mae survey of 950 undergraduate students, and 53% of the survey subjects take online courses. Use that data to construct a one-sided 95% confidence interval that would be suitable for helping to determine whether the percentage of all undergraduates who take online courses is greater than 50%.

E-Cigarettes A New York Times article reported that a survey conducted in 2014 included 36,000 adults, with 3.7% of them being regular users of e-cigarettes. Because e-cigarette use is relatively new, there is a need to obtain today’s usage rate. How many adults must be surveyed now if we want a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points?

a. Assume that nothing is known about the rate of e-cigarette usage among adults.

No Failures According to the Rule of Three, when we have a sample size n with x=0 successes, we have 95% confidence that the true population proportion has an upper bound of 3/n. (See “A Look at the Rule of Three,” by Jovanovic and Levy, American Statistician, Vol. 51, No. 2.)

a. If n independent trials result in no successes, why can’t we find confidence interval limits by using the methods described in this section?

No Failures According to the Rule of Three, when we have a sample size n with x=0 successes, we have 95% confidence that the true population proportion has an upper bound of 3/n. (See “A Look at the Rule of Three,” by Jovanovic and Levy, American Statistician, Vol. 51, No. 2.)

b. In a study of failure rates of computer hard drives, 45 Toshiba model MD04ABA500V hard drives were tested and there were no failures. What is the 95% upper bound for the percentage of failures for the population of all such hard drives?

Seating Choice In a 3M Privacy Filters poll, respondents were asked to identify their favorite seat when they fly, and the results include these responses: window, window, other, other. Letting “window” and letting “other”, those four responses can be represented as {1, 1, 0, 0}. Here are ten bootstrap samples for those responses: [Image]

Using only the ten given bootstrap samples, construct an 80% confidence interval estimate of the proportion of respondents who indicated their favorite seat is “window.”

Medical Malpractice In a study of 1228 randomly selected medical malpractice lawsuits, it was found that 856 of them were dropped or dismissed (based on data from the Physicians Insurers Association of America). Use the bootstrap method to construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the proportion of lawsuits that are dropped or dismissed. Use 1000 bootstrap samples. How does the result compare to the confidence interval found in Exercise 16 “Medical Malpractice” from Section 7-1?

Job Interviews In a Harris poll of 514 human resource professionals, 463 said that the appearance of a job applicant is most important for a good first impression. Use 1000 bootstrap samples to construct a 99% confidence interval estimate of the proportion of all human resource professionals believing that the appearance of a job applicant is most important for a good first impression. How does the result compare to the confidence interval found in Exercise 24 part (b) in Section 7-1?

Female Motorcycle Owners Here is a 95% confidence interval estimate of the percentage of motorcycle owners who are female: 17.5%<p<20.6% (based on data from the Motorcycle Industry Council). What is the best point estimate of the percentage of motorcycle owners who are women?

Sample Size for Proportion Find the sample size required to estimate the percentage of statistics students who take their statistics course online. Assume that we want 95% confidence that the proportion from the sample is within two percentage points of the true population percentage.

Voting Survey In a survey of 1002 people, 70% said that they voted in a recent presidential election (based on data from ICR Research Group). Voting records show that 61% of eligible voters actually did vote.

a. Among the 1002 people surveyed, what is the actual number of people who said that they voted?

Voting Survey In a survey of 1002 people, 70% said that they voted in a recent presidential election (based on data from ICR Research Group). Voting records show that 61% of eligible voters actually did vote.

b. Find a 95% confidence interval estimate of the percentage of people who say that they voted.

Voting Survey In a survey of 1002 people, 70% said that they voted in a recent presidential election (based on data from ICR Research Group). Voting records show that 61% of eligible voters actually did vote.

d. Are the survey results consistent with the actual voter turnout of 61%? Why or why not?

Alcohol in Children’s Movies Listed below is a simple random sample of times (seconds) that animated children’s movies showed the use of alcohol (based on Data Set 20 “Alcohol and Tobacco in Movies” in Appendix B).

b. Are the requirements for constructing a 95% confidence interval estimate of the population standard deviation satisfied? If so, construct that confidence interval.

Controversial Song The song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” generated much controversy because of its lyrics and tone. CBS New York conducted a survey by asking viewers to use the Internet to respond to a question asking whether that song was really too offensive to play. Among 1043 Internet users who chose to respond, 986 said that the song was not too offensive, and 57 of the respondents said that the song was too offensive.

a. Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the proportion of the population having the belief that the song is not too offensive.

Drug Concentration You are analyzing the times for the drug concentrations to peak in the patients in Exercise 14. The population standard deviation of the times for epinephrine concentrations to peak should be less than 10 minutes. Does the confidence interval you constructed for σ suggest that the variation in the times is at an acceptable level? Explain your reasoning.