Question

Every thirtieth person entering a library is asked to choose his or her favorite author from a list of five different authors that includes a description of each. What is the purpose of asking every thirtieth person to choose their favorite author?

1) To gather data on the most popular author
2) To encourage people to read more books
3) To promote the five different authors
4) To create a sense of community among library visitors

Answer 1

The primary purpose of asking every thirtieth library visitor to choose their favorite author is to gather data on the most popular author among the library visitors through sampling.

Step-by-step explanation:

The purpose of asking every thirtieth person entering a library to choose their favorite author from a list is primarily to gather data on the most popular author. By sampling a fraction of the visitors, the library can obtain a statistical representation of the preferences of the overall visiting populace without having to survey each person.

This method, known as sampling, is frequently used in various fields such as market research, political polling, and academic studies to efficiently collect data. While the other options such as encouraging people to read more books, promoting the authors, and creating a sense of community could be secondary benefits, they are not the primary goal of this systematic approach to data collection.