Question

The number of hours that a nine month old baby sleeps at night are normally distributed with a population standard deviation of 1.5 hours and an unknown population mean. A random sample of 22 nine month old babies is taken and results in a sample mean of 12 hours. Find the margin of error for a confidence interval for the population mean with a 90% confidence level. z0.10z0.10 z0.05z0.05 z0.025z0.025 z0.01z0.01 z0.005z0.005 1.282 1.645 1.960 2.326 2.576 You may use a calculator or the common z values above. Round the final answer to two decimal places.

Answer 1

The margin of error for a confidence interval for the population mean with a 90% confidence level is 0.53 hours.

Explanation:

We have that to find our
`\alpha` level, that is the subtraction of 1 by the confidence interval divided by 2. So:

`\alpha = (1-0.9)/(2) = 0.05`

Now, we have to find z in the Ztable as such z has a pvalue of
`1-\alpha`.

So it is z with a pvalue of
`1-0.05 = 0.95`, so
`z = 1.645`

Now, find the margin of error M as such

`M = z*(\sigma)/(√(n))`

In which
`\sigma` is the standard deviation of the population and n is the size of the sample.

In this quesstion:

`\sigma = 1.5, n = 22`

So

`M = 1.645*(1.5)/(√(22)) = 0.53`

The margin of error for a confidence interval for the population mean with a 90% confidence level is 0.53 hours.