The owner of a shopping mall wants an estimate of the lengthof
time shoppers spend in the mall. The estimate is to be within
5minutes of the true time, with a 98% confidence level. The
estimateof the standard deviation of the length of time spent in
the mallis 20 minutes. How large a sample will be needed?

Respuesta :

Answer:

A sample size of at least 87 will be needed.

Step-by-step explanation:

We have that to find our [tex]\alpha[/tex] level, that is the subtraction of 1 by the confidence interval divided by 2. So:

[tex]\alpha = \frac{1-0.98}{2} = 0.01[/tex]

Now, we have to find z in the Ztable as such z has a pvalue of [tex]1-\alpha[/tex].

So it is z with a pvalue of [tex]1-0.01 = 0.99[/tex], so [tex]z = 2.325[/tex]

Now, find M as such

[tex]M = z*\frac{\sigma}{\sqrt{n}}[/tex]

In which [tex]\sigma[/tex] is the standard deviation of the population and n is the size of the sample.

In this problem, we have that:

[tex]M = 5, \sigma = 20[/tex]

So

[tex]M = z*\frac{\sigma}{\sqrt{n}}[/tex]

[tex]5 = 2.325*\frac{20}{\sqrt{n}}[/tex]

[tex]5\sqrt{n} = 46.5[/tex]

[tex]\sqrt{n} = 9.3[/tex]

[tex]n = 86.49[/tex]

A sample size of at least 87 will be needed.