Question

Students in an Introductory Statistics class at BYU-Idaho were studying prices of cold cereal at grocery stores in Rexburg. To get a sample of cold cereal prices, they went to Albertson's and rolled a die to decide which box from the left of the top shelf they would start on. They then recorded every 6th cereal after the first, moving from left to right down the shelves, recording the name, size, and price of each cereal in their sample. Which sampling method did they use?

A)Stratified random sampling.

B)Systematic random sampling.

C)Cluster sampling.

D)Simple random sampling.

Answer 1

The BYU-Idaho students used systematic random sampling to collect data on cereal box prices by selecting every 6th box from a randomly determined starting point.

Step-by-step explanation:

The students at BYU-Idaho who recorded every 6th cereal box starting from a randomly chosen box after rolling a die are employing systematic random sampling. This method involves selecting a sample from an ordered list at regular intervals - once the starting point is selected randomly, there's a fixed periodic interval (every 6th item in this case) at which selections are made.

It differs from stratified random sampling where the population is first divided into strata, and then random samples are taken from each stratum. It also differs from cluster sampling where complete clusters are randomly selected, and every member of the selected clusters is included in the sample. Finally, it is not simple random sampling since not every subgroup of the population was equally likely to be chosen - only those aligned with the systematic interval had a chance once the starting point was selected.