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.