Question

A student working on a report about mathematicians decides to find the 98% confidence interval for the difference in mean age at the time of math discovery for Greek mathematicians versus Egyptian mathematicians. The student finds the ages at the time of math discovery for members of both groups, which include all Greek and Egyptian mathematicians, and uses a calculator to determine the 98% confidence interval based on the t distribution. Why is this procedure not appropriate in this context? (4 points)

Answer 1

The entire population is measured in both cases, so the actual difference in means can be computed and a confidence interval should not be used.

Explanation:

A student working on a report about mathematicians decides to find the 98% confidence interval for the difference in mean age at the time of math discovery for Greek mathematicians versus Egyptian mathematicians. The student finds the ages at the time of math discovery for members of both groups, which include all Greek and Egyptian mathematicians, and uses a calculator to determine the 98% confidence interval based on the t distribution, the entire population is measured in both cases, so the actual difference in means can be computed and a confidence interval should not be used. There is no as such explanation of this scenario, its just the answer mentioned above.