Answer:
[$489.83, $883.67]
Step-by-step explanation:
The 98% confidence interval is given by the interval
[tex]\bf [\bar x-t\frac{s}{\sqrt n}, \bar x+t\frac{s}{\sqrt n}][/tex]
where
[tex]\bf \bar x[/tex]=686.75 is the sample mean
s = 256.20 is the sample standard deviation
n = 15 is the sample size
t is the 2% critical value for the Student's t-distribution with 14 degrees of freedom (sample size -1), this is a value such that the area under the Student's t curve outside the interval [-t, t] is 2%=0.02.
We are using the t-distribution for it is the approximation to the Normal distribution for small samples (n<30).
Either by using a table or the computer, we find
t = 2.9768
In Excel we use the function
TINV(0.01,14)
In OpenOffice Calc
TINV(0.01;14)
and our 98% confidence interval is
[tex]\bf [686.75-2.9768*\frac{256.20}{\sqrt{15}}, 686.75+2.9768*\frac{256.20}{\sqrt{15}}]=\boxed{[\$489.83,\$883.67]}[/tex]