Statistics

z Confidence Intervals Practice Problems

If you can do these, youre in pretty good shape.

Asbestos (I stole this problem from the AP Stats exam)

An asbestos removal company places great importance on the safety of their
employees. The protective suits that the employees wear are designed to keep
asbestos particles off the employees body. The owner is interested in knowing the
average amount of asbestos particles left on the employees skin after a days work. A
random sample of 100 employees had skin tests after removing their protective suit.
The average number of particles found was .481 particles per square centimeter.
Assuming that the population is Normal with a standard deviation of 0.35 particles per
square centimeter, calculate a 95% confidence interval for the number of particles left
on the employees skin. Use the four-step process.

Electricity (this was a problem from Harvards Applied Statistics Final Exam last year)
A random sample of 30 households was selected as part of a study on electricity usage,
and the number of kilowatt-hours (kWh) was recorded for each household in the sample
for the March quarter of 2006. The average usage was found to be 375kWh. In a very
large study in the March quarter of the previous year it was found that the standard
deviation of the usage was 81kWh.
Assuming the standard deviation is unchanged and that the usage is Normally
distributed, calculate a 99% confidence interval for the mean usage in the March quarter
of 2006. Use the four-step process. Also, how many houses would need to be
sampled to reduce the margin of error to 10 kWh?

Paper from Poop (this problem is insane, but real)

Did you know that a lot of paper is actually not made from trees, but from elephant
poop? This is because Elephant poop is simply fiber due to their terrible digestive
system. 1 kilogram of elephant poop can make 2 sheets of paper.
A team of zoologists took a random sample of 20 elephants and measured their total
poop for a day (in kilograms):
45 48 50 54 46 56 44 52 51 53
44 50 51 48 49 49 53 60 50 43
Elephant poop weights are distributed Normally with a population standard deviation of
4 kilograms.
a) What is the average amount of paper that an elephant poops out each day?
You do NOT have to use the four-step process for this problem, but you must
give a COMPLETE conclusion.
b) Name two ways that the margin of error could be reduced for this problem?