Math 151 , Day 28, Monday, April 8, 2002Hit reload to get current version  After Class

 SAMPLE from an UNKNOWN population.  Each person take 4 slips from the Birkenstock box,
      find the mean, and the mean + .841.
      Record these for yourself .  This is your Confidence Interval Estimate of the mean of the Birkenstock population.
      Record them also on the sheet going around, and draw the interval on the graph transparency going around.

Exams returned.  Comments, and makeup instructions.
If you missed class, you can get your exam from the box outside my door.

Fuzzy Central Limit Theorem:
Data whose variation is due to many small independent random influences will have an approximately normal distribution.
  Balls and pins, heights of women, etc.

Questions on HW: Probabilities involving sample means.
This took the whole class.  Will start here Wednesday.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Chapter 6, Introduction to Inference
Statistical Inference: drawing conclusions about a population from sample data.
    Requires: Random sample or Randomized experiment.  (Simple random sample usually)

First example:  Use sample mean xbar  to "estimate" (unknown) population mean µ
 Mean of 4 grades (HW#4.40) estimates population mean of all 10 ("known"= 69.4)  E.g. 69.75,  64.25,  73.5

Interval estimate:  xbar + margin of error (fudge factor)  estimates population mean µ (69.4)
    69.75 + 1:   "µ is between 65.75 and 73.75"  True
       64.25 + 5:   "µ is between 59.25 and 69.25"  False

Confidence interval estimate of a(n unknown) population parameter:

Confidence Interval of the form  estimate + margin-of-error  for the mean with Confidence level C: (p.306) The Birkenstock box contains numbers from a normally distributed population, with population standard deviation 2.
You each constructed a 60% confidence interval for the unknown mean:
    n = 4.
    Standard deviation of sample mean = 2/sqrt(4) = 2/2 = 1
    z* for C = 60% is .841, so margin of error m is .841 times 1= .841.
How many people captured the true mean? ( previous classes, 11/20 = 55% ,  22/29= 76%.   9/18 = 50%.
Monday, 9/18 = 50%.  Combined, 51/85= 60%   It's unusual for it to come out exactly on the button.)

Why does the formula work?

  1. If a particular xbar is within m of the population mean, then the interval xbar + m contains the population mean.

  2. & If a particular xbar is farther than m from the population mean, then the interval xbar + m doesn't contain the population mean.
  3. We choose z* (and from it m) so that the probability that Xbar is within m of the population mean    is C.

  4. How? Probability C is between -z* and +z* in the standard normal table,
        between -z* ·(s.d. of Xbar) and +z* ·(s.d. of Xbar) around µ,  in the normal distribution of Xbar.
  5. Table C, bottom row, is a restating of  table A, normal table, but with probabilities (areas) on the edge, and z values in the body.  To get the z* for C = 60% from the normal table, note that this is the middle 60%, which leaves 40% to be split between the 2 tails.  So 20% above z*,  and 80% below.  Go into the body of table A, find .8000 is between values .7995 and .8023, closer to .7995.  The z value with .7995 below it is .84.  Table C gives it more precisely as  .841.
Assumptions: pp. 312-13
SRS--other random samples get other formulas.  Nonrandom or biased  samples can't use C.I.
    Sometimes we can plausibly think of data as SRS from large population (rolling dice, repeated weighings on scale)
Xbar is normal!  OK IF 1) population is normal, or 2) n big enough for Central Limit theorem.
    Outliers?  Trouble (xbar is sensitive).   Slight outliers ok (see next)
    Skewness?  n> 15 allows CLTh to overcome all but strong skewness.
Sigma for population is known.  Rarely true in practice.  Large n?  substitute s calculated from sample. Small n--Ch. 7.


PreClass assignment Day 28 for  Day 29
Activstats: Same as given on Day 26 --work on Confidence Interval stuff, either Activstats or Moore. 
HW Day28  Read (& reread) Sec. 6.1
Memorize the tan box on p. 242 (mean and s.d. of sampling dist. of x-bar)
Memorize the definition of a C.I. p. 302, esp. the "repeated samples" bit, or above,
                 and the formula p.306 for a CI for the mean.
    Closed Book Quiz Friday or Monday on the two Confidence Interval things.
Note on reading:  p. 306, table at top:  "Tail area" is area in One tail, which is what you look up in the Normal table.
 Sec.6.1 , all from Moore . These will all be assigned Wednesday, plus more, due Friday.
p.302, 6.1 poll of women
6.2 95% confidence?
6.3 density of x-bar, and confidence intervals This problem combines the pictures 6.2 and 6.4 For part d, to draw the confidence interval:  just choose any point on the horizontal axis of  your graph to be x-bar.  Measure off the distance m (half the width of the shaded interval) and extend a bar m wide to the left and the right of your point,below the curve.  (Like fig. 6.4, the bars with arrows at the ends.  The red dots show what the x-bar is for that confidence interval)  Choose another point, and repeat..  If your first x-bar was in the shaded interval, pick your second outside the shaded interval, and vice versa.  You should note that if x-bar is in the shaded interval, then the confidence interval bar covers mu (280) and if x-bar isn't, then the bar doesn't. 
-- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Using formula p. 306 for C.I.: 
6.6 potassium again.
6.7 comparing CI's for different confidence levels.  Also write down the m (margin of error) for each interval. 
6.9 comparing CI's for different sample sizes.
6.5 IQ test scores Read pp. 312-13 before doing this one. 
Read, to discuss Optional

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