Final answer:
A 99 percent confidence interval is wider than a 95 percent confidence interval because it includes a larger portion of the probability distribution.
Step-by-step explanation:
When considering which confidence interval would be wider between a 95 percent confidence interval and a 99 percent confidence interval, the 99 percent confidence interval is expected to be wider.
This is because the 99 percent confidence interval includes 99 percent of the probability distribution, thus excluding only one percent, whereas the 95 percent confidence interval excludes five percent of the distribution.
Therefore, to increase our confidence from 95 percent to 99 percent, we necessarily have to accept a wider interval.
The lower bound for a 98 percent confidence interval would lie closer to the mean than a 99 percent confidence interval but further from it than a 95 percent interval.
The exact lower bound would depend on the specific data set and statistical methods used.