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According to a 2017 Pew Research report, \(40 \%\) of millennials have a BA degree. Suppose we take a random sample of 500 millennials and find the proportion who have a BA degree. a. What value should we expect for our sample proportion? b. What is the standard error? c. Use your answers to parts a and \(\mathrm{b}\) to complete this sentence: We expect ____ \(\%\) to have a BA degree give or take ___ \(\%\). d. Suppose we decreased the sample size from 500 to 100 . What effect would this have on the standard error? Recalculate the standard error to see if your prediction was correct.

Short Answer

Expert verified
a. We should expect our sample proportion to be \(40\%\). b. The standard error is approximately \(2.2\%\). c. We expect \(40\%\) of millennials in our sample to have a BA degree give or take \(2.2\%\). d. Decreasing the sample size from 500 to 100 results in an increased standard error of about \(4.9\%\).

Step by step solution

01

Calculate Expected Value of Sample Proportion

As stated in the question, \(40\%\) (or 0.4) of millennials have a BA degree. So, we would expect our sample proportion to be 0.4 or 40\% since our sample is expected to represent the population.
02

Compute the Standard Error

Standard error for a sample proportion is given by the formula: \(\sqrt{p(1 - p) / n}\), where \(p\) is the population proportion and \(n\) is the sample size. Therefore, \(\sqrt{0.4(1 - 0.4) / 500} = \sqrt{0.24 / 500} = 0.0219\)It's common to round this value, so we can say the standard error is approximately 0.022 or 2.2\%.
03

Interpret the Results

This means we expect the proportion of millennials in our sample who have a BA degree to be \(40\%\) (from part 'a') give or take \(2.2\%\)(from part 'b').
04

Examine the Impact of a Changed Sample Size

If we decrease the sample size, we can expect the standard error to increase because the formula for standard error divides by the sample size \(n\). The smaller \(n\) becomes, the larger the resulting standard error, therefore increasing uncertainty. We can confirm by recalculating the standard error for a sample size of 100 instead of 500: \(\sqrt{0.4(1 - 0.4) / 100} = \sqrt{0.24 / 100} = 0.049\) or \(4.9\%\). As predicted, the standard error has increased.

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Key Concepts

These are the key concepts you need to understand to accurately answer the question.

Standard Error
The concept of the standard error is crucial in statistics as it helps measure how much variability exists in a sample statistic. This term often sounds technical, but it's easier to understand than you might think. The standard error tells us how much the sample proportion could differ from the true population proportion if we took different samples from the same population repeatedly. In mathematical terms, for a sample proportion, this is calculated using the formula:
\[SE = \sqrt{\frac{p(1 - p)}{n}}\]
Here:
  • \(p\) is the population proportion, which, in our problem, is 0.4.
  • \(n\) is the sample size.

So, for a sample size of 500, we find the standard error by substituting into the formula which results in a value of approximately 0.022 or 2.2%. This 2.2% represents the expected variability in the sample proportion due to random sampling.
Population Proportion
Understanding population proportion is key to not only solving our example problem but also to grasping broader statistical analyses. The population proportion is simply the percentage of a total population that shares a particular characteristic. It serves as a parameter that we aim to estimate through sample surveys or studies.
In this exercise, the population proportion was given as 40% or 0.4. This means that for every 100 millennials in the population, 40 are expected to have a BA degree. When we draw a representative sample, like in our problem, we anticipate that the sample will mirror the characteristics of the entire population. Therefore, the expected value of our sample proportion is also 0.4, which reflects the underlying population proportion. Insights about this parameter help us evaluate how accurate our sample results are and how closely they can predict population behaviors.
Sample Size Impact
The sample size plays a vital role in determining the precision of our sample estimates. Any change in sample size directly affects the standard error, which in turn impacts our confidence in the sample's ability to approximate the population.
When you decrease the sample size, as shown in the exercise from 500 to 100, the standard error increases. This increase signifies greater variability and less precision in the sample estimate. Calculating for a sample size of 100, the standard error becomes 0.049 or 4.9%, indicating a higher range of uncertainty.
In simpler terms, the larger the sample size, the more reliable and closer our estimate is to the true population proportion. Larger samples pull down the standard error, giving us tighter and more accurate confidence intervals. This is why statisticians always emphasize the importance of using a sufficiently large sample when aiming for precise statistical inferences.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

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