Question

Suppose we are interested in the proportion of nursing majors at a university, and we take a random sample of 150 students to estimate the percent of students in our class who are nursing majors.

• What is the population?
• What is the sample?
• What is the variable?
• Is the variable qualitative or quantitative?

Answer 1

What is the population?

Population is the group of all individuals from which the researcher wants information about. In this study, all the students in that particular university is the population.

What is the sample?

Samples are actually the subset or fraction of the population. Samples are drawn in order to make our study more convinient and easy. In this particular study, the randomly selected 150 students constitute the sample. Since the 150 students are studying in that university(population), it becomes the fraction of population.

What is the variable?

A variable is defined as anything that has a quantity or quality that varies. Here, nursing major is the variable. Since we are estimating the percent of students in a class who are nursing majors, nursing majors is the variable to be tested here.

Is the variable quantitative or qualitative?

The variable(nursing major) is a qualitative variable. Since the student's responses are either yes or no, it is a qualitative not a quantitative variable. The quantitative variable is a variable which can have only numerical values.