In: Statistics and Probability
1. A firm would like to know the average time its workers spend on a certain task. The firm takes a sample of 35 workers and finds that they take, on average, 13 minutes to complete the task, with a sample standard deviation of 3 minutes. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the population mean.
a) State the critical value:
b) Calculate the margin of error (round to the thousandths place):
c) State the lower and upper values of the confidence interval:
Solution :
Given that,
= 13
s =3
n =35
Degrees of freedom = df = n - 1 =35 - 1 = 34
At 95% confidence level the t is ,
= 1 - 95% = 1 - 0.95 = 0.05
  
/
2= 0.05 / 2 = 0.025
t
/2,df = t0.025,34 = 2.032 ( using student t
table)
Margin of error = E = t
/2,df
* (s /n)
= 2.032* (3 / 
35)
= 1.030
The 95% confidence interval is,
- E < 
 < 
 + E
13 - 1.030< 
 <13 +1.030  
11.970 < 
 < 14.030
(11.970 , 14.030)