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In a city, 70% of the people prefer Candidate A. Suppose 30 people from this city were sampled. (a) What is the mean of the sampling distribution of p? (b) What is the standard error of p? (c) What is the probability that 80% or more of this sample will prefer Candidate A? (d) What is the probability that 45% or more of this sample will prefer some other candidate?

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A. The mean of the sampling distribution of P^ is 0.7.
B. The SE = 0.08366

C. The probability that 80% or more of this sample will prefer Candidate A, using the normal approximation, is approximately 0.116.
D. The probability that 45% or more of this sample will prefer some other candidate is approximately 0.9635.

How do we find the mean, standard error and

p = 0.7 (proportion preferring Candidate A)

n = 30 (sample size)

B. SE( p^) = √((p(1-p))/n)

SE = 0.7(0.3)/30

SE = √(0.21/30)

SE = 0.0837

z = (p^ - p)/SE( p^)

where p^ is the sample proportion we're interested in (in this case, 0.8 for 80%), p is the population proportion (0.7), and SE(p^) is the standard error of the sample proportion

(0.8 -0.7)/0.0837 = 1.195

SE = 0.0837 to find the z-score for p^ = 0.8 = 1.195

This probability is approximately 0.116.

D. 45% is equivalent to the probability of less than 55% (or 0.55) preferring Candidate A. We standardize 0.55 and find the probability for that z-score.

z = (0.55−0.70)/0.0837 = -1.792

The probability of a z-score being less than -1.79 in a standard normal distribution is approximately 0.0365.

1 - 0.0365 = 0.9635

User David De Sloovere
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