Final answer:
The standard error of the sample mean is approximately 0.0671 degrees Fahrenheit when rounded to two decimal places. The distribution of the sample mean is a t-distribution due to the use of the sample standard deviation as an estimate.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question involves calculating the standard error of the sample mean for a set of body temperature measurements. To find the standard error, we use the formula: standard error = sample standard deviation / sqrt(sample size). With a sample standard deviation of 0.3 degrees Fahrenheit and a sample size of 20, the standard error is calculated as:
standard error = 0.3 / sqrt(20)
standard error = 0.3 / 4.472
standard error ≈ 0.0671 (rounded to two decimal places)
The distribution of the sample mean is a t-distribution because we are using the sample standard deviation as an estimate of the population standard deviation, which is unknown.