Suppose you compute a confidence interval with a sample size of 81. What will happen to the confidence interval if the sample size increases to 84?The confidence interval will widen.The confidence interval will narrow.The width of the confidence interval will stay the same.
Question
Suppose you compute a confidence interval with a sample size of 81. What will happen to the confidence interval if the sample size increases to 84?The confidence interval will widen.The confidence interval will narrow.The width of the confidence interval will stay the same.
Solution
To answer this question, let's break it down step by step:
-
Understanding Confidence Intervals: A confidence interval provides a range of values that is likely to contain the population parameter. The width of the confidence interval depends on the sample size, the variability in the data, and the confidence level.
-
Effect of Sample Size on Confidence Interval: The width of the confidence interval is inversely related to the square root of the sample size. This means that as the sample size increases, the width of the confidence interval decreases.
-
Mathematical Relationship: The formula for the margin of error (which determines the width of the confidence interval) is: where is the z-score corresponding to the desired confidence level, is the population standard deviation, and is the sample size.
-
Comparing Sample Sizes:
- Initial sample size () = 81
- New sample size () = 84
-
Calculating the Effect:
- For :
- For :
-
Comparison: Since is slightly larger than , the denominator in the margin of error formula increases, leading to a smaller margin of error.
Therefore, when the sample size increases from 81 to 84, the confidence interval will narrow.
Similar Questions
Suppose you compute a 91% confidence interval. What will happen to the confidence interval if you increase the confidence level to 93%?The confidence interval will widen.The confidence interval will narrow.The width of the confidence interval will stay the same.
Suppose you compute a 98% confidence interval. What will happen to the confidence interval if you decrease the confidence level to 96%?The confidence interval will widen.The confidence interval will narrow.The width of the confidence interval will stay the same
For confidence interval estimates, which of the following statements is FALSEGroup of answer choicesincreasing the sample size decreases the width of the confidence intervalusing a sample standard deviation instead of the population standard deviation always results in a wider confidence intervalthe width of the confidence interval increases as we demand more confidencea 95% confidence interval for the mean (with population standard deviation known) will be narrower than a 99% confidence interval
Confidence IntervalsWhat effect will decreasing the sample size and keeping everything else the same have on the length of your confidence interval?It will increase.It will decrease.It will remain the same.It cannot be determined from the given information.
Examine the following statements and then select the one statement that is correct.Group of answer choicesA wider confidence interval means less confidence in the estimate (all other things being equal).A narrower confidence interval is always better than a wider confidence interval.For a 95% confidence interval for a population mean, there is a 95% chance that the confidence interval includes the sample mean.The width of a confidence interval is affected by both the sampling error and the required level of confidence.
Upgrade your grade with Knowee
Get personalized homework help. Review tough concepts in more detail, or go deeper into your topic by exploring other relevant questions.