Final answer:
- a) The best point estimate for μ is the sample mean is 83.50.
- b) The critical values for a 90% confidence interval are -1.645 (for the lower tail) and 1.645 (for the upper tail).
- c)The margin of error is 1.24.
- d)The confidence interval is therefore 81.087077 - 1.24 to 81.087077 + 1.24, or (79.847, 82.327).
Step-by-step explanation:
To construct a 90% confidence interval for the mean score for all students, we need to determine the best point estimate for μ, find the critical values, calculate the margin of error, and construct the confidence interval.
(a) The best point estimate for μ is the sample mean, which is calculated by finding the average of the scores: (81 + 87 + 77 + 81 + 87 + 77) / 6 = 83.50.
(b) The critical values can be found by referring to the standard normal distribution table. At a 90% confidence level, we need to split the remaining 10% evenly between the upper and lower tails.
This means we need to find the z-score that leaves 5% in the upper tail, which corresponds to a z-score of 1.645..
(c) The margin of error is calculated by multiplying the critical value by the standard deviation of the sample divided by the square root of the sample size.
In this case, the margin of error is (1.645)(2.49) / √6 ≈ 1.24.
(d) Finally, we can construct the confidence interval by subtracting the margin of error from the sample mean and adding it to the sample mean.
The 90% confidence interval is therefore 83.50 - 1.24 to 83.50 + 1.24, or (82.26, 84.74).