Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A teacher wants to know what share of the 900 students in her school eat breakfast. Five pupils each take their own random sample of 60 students. They find these percentages: , , , and . Find the mean of the five statistics and their range. One pupil says that four of the five samples must be wrong, because only one answer can be true. Explain why the pupil is mistaken.
A parameter describes the whole population and is usually unknown. A statistic is worked out from a sample and is used as its estimate. If a fair sample of has with a property, , and the estimate for a population of is .
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. The mean. .
Step 2. The range. percentage points.
Step 3. Why they differ. Each sample holds different students, so each statistic is different. That is sampling variability. None of the five is "the truth". Each is an estimate of the parameter, and all five can be fair.
Answer: mean , range percentage points.
What if? With samples of 240 instead of 60 (four times as large), the five answers would usually spread over about half the range.
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