A political candidate has asked you to conduct a poll to determine what percentage of people support her. If the candidate only wants a 3% margin of error at a 90% confidence level, what size of sample is needed?

Respuesta :

Answer:

At sample size of 752 is needed.

Step-by-step explanation:

In a sample with a number n of people surveyed with a probability of a success of [tex]\pi[/tex], and a confidence level of [tex]1-\alpha[/tex], we have the following confidence interval of proportions.

[tex]\pi \pm z\sqrt{\frac{\pi(1-\pi)}{n}}[/tex]

In which

z is the zscore that has a pvalue of [tex]1 - \frac{\alpha}{2}[/tex].

The margin of error is:

[tex]M = z\sqrt{\frac{\pi(1-\pi)}{n}}[/tex]

90% confidence level

So [tex]\alpha = 0.1[/tex], z is the value of Z that has a pvalue of [tex]1 - \frac{0.1}{2} = 0.95[/tex], so [tex]Z = 1.645[/tex].

What size of sample is needed?

A sample size of n is needed.

n is found when M = 0.03.

We do not have a estimate for the true proportion, so we use [tex]\pi = 0.5[/tex], which is when we are going to need the largest sample size.

[tex]M = z\sqrt{\frac{\pi(1-\pi)}{n}}[/tex]

[tex]0.03 = 1.645\sqrt{\frac{0.5*0.5}{n}}[/tex]

[tex]0.03\sqrt{n} = 1.645*0.5[/tex]

[tex]\sqrt{n} = \frac{1.645*0.5}{0.03}[/tex]

[tex](\sqrt{n})^{2} = (\frac{1.645*0.5}{0.03})^{2}[/tex]

[tex]n = 751.67[/tex]

Rounding up

At sample size of 752 is needed.