OCR MEI Further Statistics B AS 2018 June — Question 1

Exam BoardOCR MEI
ModuleFurther Statistics B AS (Further Statistics B AS)
Year2018
SessionJune
TopicCentral limit theorem
TypeConfidence interval from software output

1 The birth weights, in kilograms, of a random sample of 9 captive-bred elephants are as follows. $$\begin{array} { l l l l l l l l l } 94 & 138 & 130 & 118 & 146 & 165 & 82 & 115 & 69 \end{array}$$ A researcher uses software to produce a \(99 \%\) confidence interval for the mean birth weight of captive-bred elephants. The output from the software is shown in Fig. 1. \begin{table}[h]
Result
T Estimate of a Mean
Mean
s
SE
N
df
Lower limit
Upper limit
Interval
\captionsetup{labelformat=empty} \caption{Fig. 1}
\end{table}
  1. State an assumption about the distribution of the population from which these weights come that is necessary in order to produce this interval.
  2. State the confidence interval which the software gives, in the form \(a < \mu < b\).
  3. Explain
    • what the label df means,
    • how the value of df is calculated for a confidence interval produced using the \(t\) distribution.
    • State two ways in which the researcher could have obtained a narrower confidence interval.