In: Statistics and Probability
A fitness center is interested in finding a 98% confidence interval for the mean number of days per week that Americans who are members of a fitness club go to their fitness center. Records of 213 members were looked at and their mean number of visits per week was 2.4 and the standard deviation was 1.8. Round answers to 3 decimal places where possible. a. To compute the confidence interval use a distribution. b. With 98% confidence the population mean number of visits per week is between and visits. c. If many groups of 213 randomly selected members are studied, then a different confidence interval would be produced from each group. About percent of these confidence intervals will contain the true population mean number of visits per week and about percent will not contain the true population mean number of visits per week.
Solution :
degrees of freedom = n - 1 = 213 - 1 = 212
t/2,df = t0.01,212 = 2.344
Margin of error = E = t/2,df * (s /n)
= 2.344 * (1.8 / 213)
Margin of error = E = 0.289
The 98% confidence interval estimate of the population mean is,
- E < < + E
2.4 - 0.289 < < 2.4 + 0.289
( 2.111 < < 2.689 )
b) With 98% confidence the population mean number of visits per week is between 2.111 and 2.689 visits.
c) If many groups of 213 randomly selected members are studied, then a different confidence interval would be produced from each group. About 98 percent of these confidence intervals will contain the true population mean number of visits per week and about 2 percent will not contain the true population mean number of visits per week.