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When asked to find the 99% confidence interval of the mean, what is α?

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Final answer:

The value of α represents the probability that the confidence interval does not contain the unknown population parameter. In the case of a 99% confidence interval, α is equal to 0.01 or 1%.

Step-by-step explanation:

The value of α represents the probability that the confidence interval does not contain the unknown population parameter. It is also known as the significance level or Type I error rate. In the case of a 99% confidence interval, α is equal to 0.01 or 1%.

User Cody Guldner
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Final answer:

The value of α when finding a 99% confidence interval is 1%, representing the probability that the interval does not include the population mean. This 1% is equally distributed among the two tails of the distribution curve.

Step-by-step explanation:

When asked to find the 99% confidence interval of the mean, α represents the probability that the confidence interval does not contain the unknown population mean, μ. In this case, α = 1 - CL, where CL is the confidence level. For a 99% confidence interval, we would subtract 99% (or 0.99) from 1 to find α, which would be 1 - 0.99 = 0.01. So, α equals 1%, meaning that there is a 1% chance that the confidence interval does not contain the true population mean. This 1% is split equally between the two tails of the distribution curve.

User Matthew Finlay
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