Sampling Distributions

1. Sampling distributions describe the distribution of

a) parameters.

b) statistics.

c) both parameters and statistics.

d) neither parameters nor statistics.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Easy

KEYWORDS: statistics, sampling distribution

2. The standard error of the mean

a) is never larger than the standard deviation of the population.

b) decreases as the sample size increases.

c) measures the variability of the mean from sample to sample.

d) All the above.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Easy

KEYWORDS: standard error, mean

3. The Central Limit Theorem is important in statistics because

a) for a large n, it says the population is approximately normal.

b) for any population, it says the sampling distribution of the sample mean is

approximately normal, regardless of the sample size.

c) for a large n, it says the sampling distribution of the sample mean is

approximately

normal, regardless of the shape of the population.

d) for any sized sample, it says the sampling distribution of the sample mean is
approximately normal.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Difficult

KEYWORDS: central limit theorem

4. If the expected value of a sample statistic is equal to the parameter it is

estimating, then we

call that sample statistic

a) unbiased.

b) minimum variance.

c) biased.

d) random.

ANSWER:

7-2 Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: unbiased

5. For air travelers, one of the biggest complaints is of the waiting time between
when the

airplane taxis away from the terminal until the flight takes off. This waiting time is
known

to have a right skewed distribution with a mean of 10 minutes and a standard

deviation of 8

minutes. Suppose 100 flights have been randomly sampled. Describe the sampling

distribution of the mean waiting time between when the airplane taxis away from
the

terminal until the flight takes off for these 100 flights.
a) Distribution is right skewed with mean = 10 minutes and standard error = 0.8

minutes.

b) Distribution is right skewed with mean = 10 minutes and standard error = 8

minutes.

c) Distribution is approximately normal with mean = 10 minutes and standard error

=

0.8 minutes.

d) Distribution is approximately normal with mean = 10 minutes and standard error

=8

minutes.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: central limit theorem

6. Which of the following statements about the sampling distribution of the sample
mean is

incorrect?

a) The sampling distribution of the sample mean is approximately normal whenever

the

sample size is sufficiently large ( n  30 ).

b) The sampling distribution of the sample mean is generated by repeatedly taking

samples of size n and computing the sample means.

c) The mean of the sampling distribution of the sample mean is equal to  .

d) The standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the sample mean is equal
to  .

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Easy

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, properties, mean

7. Which of the following is true about the sampling distribution of the sample
mean?

a) The mean of the sampling distribution is always  .

b) The standard deviation of the sampling distribution is always  .

c) The shape of the sampling distribution is always approximately normal.

d) All the above are true.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, properties, mean

Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions 7-3

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

8. True or False: The amount of time it takes to complete an examination has a left
skewed

distribution with a mean of 65 minutes and a standard deviation of 8 minutes. If 64

students

were randomly sampled, the probability that the sample mean of the sampled
students

exceeds 71 minutes is approximately 0.

ANSWER:

True

TYPE: TF DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, central limit theorem

9. Suppose the ages of students in Statistics 101 follow a right skewed distribution
with a

mean of 23 years and a standard deviation of 3 years. If we randomly sampled 100

students, which of the following statements about the sampling distribution of the
sample

mean age is incorrect?

a) The mean of the sampling distribution is equal to 23 years.

b) The standard deviation of the sampling distribution is equal to 3 years.

c) The shape of the sampling distribution is approximately normal.

d) The standard error of the sampling distribution is equal to 0.3 years.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Easy

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, central limit theorem

10. Why is the Central Limit Theorem so important to the study of sampling
distributions?

a) It allows us to disregard the size of the sample selected when the population is
not

normal.

b) It allows us to disregard the shape of the sampling distribution when the size of
the

population is large.

c) It allows us to disregard the size of the population we are sampling from.

d) It allows us to disregard the shape of the population when n is large.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: central limit theorem

11. A sample that does not provide a good representation of the population from
which it was

collected is referred to as a (n) sample.

ANSWER:

biased

TYPE: FI DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: unbiased

7-4 Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

12. True or False: The Central Limit Theorem is considered powerful in statistics
because it

works for any population distribution provided the sample size is sufficiently large
and the

population mean, and standard deviation are known.

ANSWER:

True

TYPE: TF DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: central limit theorem

13. Suppose a sample of n = 50 items is selected from a population of

manufactured products

and the weight, X, of each item is recorded. Prior experience has shown that the
weight has

a probability distribution with  = 6 ounces and  = 2.5 ounces. Which of the

following

is true about the sampling distribution of the sample mean if a sample of size 15 is

selected?

a) The mean of the sampling distribution is 6 ounces.

b) The standard deviation of the sampling distribution is 2.5 ounces.

c) The shape of the sampling distribution is approximately normal.

d) All the above are correct.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, unbiased

14. The mean score of all pro golfers for a course has a mean of 70 and a standard
deviation of

3.0. Suppose 36 pro golfers played the course today. Find the probability that the
mean

score of the 36 pro golfers exceeded 71.

ANSWER:

0.0228

TYPE: PR DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability, central limit theorem

15. The distribution of the number of loaves of bread sold per week by a large
bakery over the

past 5 years has a mean of 7,750 and a standard deviation of 145 loaves. Suppose
a random

sample of n = 40 weeks has been selected. What is the approximate probability that
the

mean number of loaves sold in the sampled weeks exceeds 7,895 loaves?

ANSWER:

Approximately 0

TYPE: PR DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability, central limit theorem

Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions 7-5

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

16. Sales prices of baseball cards from the 1960s are known to possess a right
skewed

distribution with a mean sale price of $5.25 and a standard deviation of $2.80.
Suppose a

random sample of 100 cards from the 1960s is selected. Describe the sampling
distribution

for the sample mean sale price of the selected cards.

a) Right skewed with a mean of $5.25 and a standard error of $2.80

b) Normal with a mean of $5.25 and a standard error of $0.28

c) Right skewed with a mean of $5.25 and a standard error of $0.28

d) Normal with a mean of $5.25 and a standard error of $2.80

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Easy

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, central limit theorem

17. Major league baseball salaries averaged $3.26 million with a standard deviation
of $1.2

million in a certain year in the past. Suppose a sample of 100 major league players
was

taken. What was the standard error for the sample mean salary?

a) $0.012 million

b) $0.12 million

c) $12 million

d) $1,200.0 million

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: standard error, mean

18. Major league baseball salaries averaged $3.26 million with a standard deviation
of $1.2

million in a certain year in the past. Suppose a sample of 100 major league players
was

taken. Find the approximate probability that the mean salary of the 100 players
exceeded

$3.5 million.
a) Approximately 0

b) 0.0228

c) 0.9772

d) Approximately 1

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability, central limit theorem

7-6 Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

19. Major league baseball salaries averaged $3.26 million with a standard deviation
of $1.2

million in a certain year in the past. Suppose a sample of 100 major league players
was

taken. Find the approximate probability that the mean salary of the 100 players
exceeded

$4.0 million.

a) Approximately 0

b) 0.0228

c) 0.9772

d) Approximately 1

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability, central limit theorem

20. Major league baseball salaries averaged $3.26 million with a standard deviation
of $1.2
million in a certain year in the past. Suppose a sample of 100 major league players
was

taken. Find the approximate probability that the mean salary of the 100 players was
no

more than $3.0 million.

a) Approximately 0

b) 0.0151

c) 0.9849

d) Approximately 1

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability, central limit theorem

21. Major league baseball salaries averaged $3.26 million with a standard deviation
of $1.2

million in a certain year in the past. Suppose a sample of 100 major league players
was

taken. Find the approximate probability that the mean salary of the 100 players was
less

than $2.5 million.

a) Approximately 0

b) 0.0151

c) 0.9849

d) Approximately 1

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability, central limit theorem

Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions 7-7

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

22. At a computer manufacturing company, the actual size of a computer chip is

normally

distributed with a mean of 1 centimeter and a standard deviation of 0.1 centimeter.

A

random sample of 12 computer chips is taken. What is the standard error for the
sample

mean?

a) 0.029

b) 0.050

c) 0.091

d) 0.120

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Easy

KEYWORDS: standard error, mean

23. At a computer manufacturing company, the actual size of a computer chip is

normally

distributed with a mean of 1 centimeter and a standard deviation of 0.1 centimeter.

A

random sample of 12 computer chips is taken. What is the probability that the
sample mean

will be between 0.99 and 1.01 centimeters?

ANSWER:

0.2710 using Excel or 0.2736 using Table E.2

TYPE: PR DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability

24. At a computer manufacturing company, the actual size of a computer chip is
normally

distributed with a mean of 1 centimeter and a standard deviation of 0.1 centimeter.

A

random sample of 12 computer chips is taken. What is the probability that the
sample mean

will be below 0.95 centimeters?

ANSWER:

0.0416 using Excel or 0.0418 using Table E.2

TYPE: PR DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability

25. At a computer manufacturing company, the actual size of a computer chip is

normally

distributed with a mean of 1 centimeter and a standard deviation of 0.1 centimeter.

A

random sample of 12 computer chips is taken. Above what value do 2.5% of the
sample

means fall?

ANSWER:

1.057

TYPE: PR DIFFICULTY: Difficult

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, value

7-8 Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

26. The owner of a fish market has an assistant who has determined that the
weights of catfish

are normally distributed, with mean of 3.2 pounds and standard deviation of 0.8
pound. If a

sample of 16 fish is taken, what would the standard error of the mean weight equal?
a) 0.003

b) 0.050

c) 0.200

d) 0.800

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Easy

KEYWORDS: standard error, mean

27. The owner of a fish market has an assistant who has determined that the
weights of catfish

are normally distributed, with mean of 3.2 pounds and standard deviation of 0.8
pound. If a

sample of 25 fish yields a mean of 3.6 pounds, what is the Z-score for this
observation?

a) 18.750

b) 2.500

c) 1.875

d) 0.750

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Easy

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean

28. The owner of a fish market has an assistant who has determined that the
weights of catfish

are normally distributed, with mean of 3.2 pounds and standard deviation of 0.8
pound. If a

sample of 64 fish yields a mean of 3.4 pounds, what is probability of obtaining a

sample

mean this large or larger?

a) 0.0001

b) 0.0013

c) 0.0228

d) 0.4987

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability

29. The owner of a fish market has an assistant who has determined that the
weights of catfish

are normally distributed, with mean of 3.2 pounds and standard deviation of 0.8
pound.

What percentage of samples of 4 fish will have sample means between 3.0 and 4.0
pounds?

a) 84%

b) 67%

c) 29%

d) 16%

Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions 7-9

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, probability

30. For sample size 16, the sampling distribution of the mean will be approximately
normally

distributed

a) regardless of the shape of the population.

b) if the shape of the population is symmetrical.

c) if the sample standard deviation is known.

d) if the sample is normally distributed.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, central limit theorem

31. The standard error of the mean for a sample of 100 is 30. To cut the standard
error of the

mean to 15, we would

a) increase the sample size to 200.

b) increase the sample size to 400.

c) decrease the sample size to 50.

d) decrease the sample to 25.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: standard error, mean

32. Which of the following is true regarding the sampling distribution of the mean
for a large

sample size?

a) It has the same shape, mean, and standard deviation as the population.

b) It has a normal distribution with the same mean and standard deviation as the

population.

c) It has the same shape and mean as the population but has a smaller standard

deviation.
d) It has a normal distribution with the same mean as the population but with a
smaller

standard deviation.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, central limit theorem

7-10 Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

33. For sample sizes greater than 30, the sampling distribution of the mean will be

approximately normally distributed

a) regardless of the shape of the population.

b) only if the shape of the population is symmetrical.

c) only if the standard deviation of the samples are known.

d) only if the population is normally distributed.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Easy

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, central limit theorem

34. For sample size 1, the sampling distribution of the mean will be normally
distributed

a) regardless of the shape of the population.

b) only if the shape of the population is symmetrical.

c) only if the population values are positive.

d) only if the population is normally distributed.

ANSWER:

d
TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, mean, central limit theorem

35. The standard error of the population proportion will become larger

a) as population proportion approaches 0.

b) as population proportion approaches 0.50.

c) as population proportion approaches 1.00.

d) as the sample size increases.

ANSWER:

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Moderate

KEYWORDS: standard error, proportion

131. The finite population correction is used when:

a) The population is considered finite

b) n/N > 0.05

c) Sampling is done without replacement

d) All of the above

ANSWER:

TYPE: TF DIFFICULTY: Difficult

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, populations, central limit theorem

132. Which of the following statements gives the best reason for using the finite
population

correction in computing the standard error of a sample mean or proportion?

a) We are sampling from a finite population.

b) n/N > 0.05

c) It is used when sampling w/o replacement from more than 5% of the population
because the central limit theorem does not hold and the standard error of the
estimate

(sample mean or proportion) will be too large.

d) It adjusts for the sample size being relatively large to that of the population.

ANSWER:

Chapter 7: Sampling Distributions 7-29

Copyright ©2021 Pearson Education, Inc.

TYPE: TF DIFFICULTY: Difficult

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, populations, central limit theorem

133. A written survey is conducted at a college where the administration wants to

estimate the

number of students wishing to form a student union. There are 7,000 students on
campus.

In a simple random sample of 600, 420 were in favor of establishing a student

union.

Compute the standard error (σp) of the proportion (π).

ANSWER:

0.0179

TYPE: PR DIFFICULTY: Difficult

KEYWORDS: sampling distribution, population size, central limit theorem, finite

population

correction.

134. Which of the following is (are) true regarding the finite population correction
fpc)?

a) The numerator is less than the denominator giving a correction value > 1.

b) The numerator is less than the denominator giving a correction value < 1.

c) Using the fpc, the standard error becomes smaller when corrected.

d) b and c
ANSWER: d

TYPE: MC DIFFICULTY: Difficult

KEYWORDS: Sampling from finite populations, fpc