Final answer:
The total number of possible simple random samples when a population has 14 observations and the sample size is 4 with order not being important is calculated using combinations, resulting in 1001 possible samples.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question involves a population consisting of 14 observations and asks for the total number of possible samples when the sample size is fixed at 4, with the condition that order is not important, using simple random sampling. To find this, we use the combination formula which is represented as C(n, k) = n! / (k!(n-k)!), where n is the total number of observations in the population and k is the sample size.
Plugging in the values for our case,
we get C(14, 4) = 14! / (4! * (14-4)!) = 14! / (4! * 10!) = (14 * 13 * 12 * 11) / (4 * 3 * 2 * 1) = 1001.
Therefore, the total number of possible simple random samples is 1001.