Question

The average height of a total of 500 girls in a high school is 63 inches. You randomly sampled 10 girls and measured their weight. You repeated this procedure three times. The means and standard deviations from your 4 samples are listed as following. Which sample estimate shows the least sampling variability?

Select one:
a. Sample one: mean=64, SE=5
b. Sample two: mean=64, SE=2
c. Sample three: mean=66, SE=3
d. Sample four: mean=68, SE=5

Answer 1

b) Sample two (mean=64, SE=2) shows the least sampling variability

Explanation:

Sampling variability explains the extent to which the measurement obtained from a sample is different from that obtained from the population from which that sample was taken.

Standard deviation shows the deviation of the mean of a sample from the mean of the population.

Sample two, has a mean of 64 which is closest to the population average of 63 inches, and a standard deviation of 2 which is the lowest among the four samples taken. This means sample 2 shows the least sampling variability.