Find confidence level from interval

Given a confidence interval and sample data, work backwards to find the confidence level (α%) used.

19 questions · Standard +0.6

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CAIE S2 2024 June Q3
4 marks Challenging +1.2
3 A student wishes to estimate the proportion, \(p\), of students at her college who have exactly one brother. She surveys a random sample of 50 students at her college and finds that 18 of them have exactly one brother. She calculates an approximate \(\alpha \%\) confidence interval for \(p\) and finds that the lower limit of the confidence interval is 0.244 correct to 3 significant figures. Find \(\alpha\) correct to the nearest integer.
CAIE S2 2016 June Q3
5 marks Moderate -0.8
3 Based on a random sample of 700 people living in a certain area, a confidence interval for the proportion, \(p\), of all people living in that area who had travelled abroad was found to be \(0.5672 < p < 0.6528\).
  1. Find the proportion of people in the sample who had travelled abroad.
  2. Find the confidence level of this confidence interval. Give your answer correct to the nearest integer.
CAIE S2 2018 June Q3
5 marks Standard +0.3
3 A researcher wishes to estimate the proportion, \(p\), of houses in London Road that have only one occupant. He takes a random sample of 64 houses in London Road and finds that 8 houses in the sample have only one occupant. Using this sample, he calculates that an approximate \(\alpha \%\) confidence interval for \(p\) has width 0.130 . Find \(\alpha\) correct to the nearest integer.
CAIE S2 2021 November Q3
5 marks Standard +0.3
3 A random sample of 75 students at a large college was selected for a survey. 15 of these students said that they owned a car. From this result an approximate \(\alpha \%\) confidence interval for the proportion of all students at the college who own a car was calculated. The width of this interval was found to be 0.162 . Calculate the value of \(\alpha\) correct to 2 significant figures.
CAIE S2 2022 November Q1
7 marks Standard +0.3
1 Each of a random sample of 80 adults gave an estimate, \(h\) metres, of the height of a particular building. The results were summarised as follows. $$n = 80 \quad \Sigma h = 2048 \quad \Sigma h ^ { 2 } = 52760$$
  1. Calculate unbiased estimates of the population mean and variance.
  2. Using this sample, the upper boundary of an \(\alpha \%\) confidence interval for the population mean is 26.0 . Find the value of \(\alpha\).
CAIE S2 2005 June Q3
7 marks Standard +0.3
3 A survey of a random sample of \(n\) people found that 61 of them read The Reporter newspaper. A symmetric confidence interval for the true population proportion, \(p\), who read The Reporter is \(0.1993 < p < 0.2887\).
  1. Find the mid-point of this confidence interval and use this to find the value of \(n\).
  2. Find the confidence level of this confidence interval.
CAIE S2 2015 June Q5
9 marks Standard +0.8
5 The volumes, \(v\) millilitres, of juice in a random sample of 50 bottles of Cooljoos are measured and summarised as follows. $$n = 50 \quad \Sigma v = 14800 \quad \Sigma v ^ { 2 } = 4390000$$
  1. Find unbiased estimates of the population mean and variance.
  2. An \(\alpha \%\) confidence interval for the population mean, based on this sample, is found to have a width of 5.45 millilitres. Find \(\alpha\). Four random samples of size 10 are taken and a \(96 \%\) confidence interval for the population mean is found from each sample.
  3. Find the probability that these 4 confidence intervals all include the true value of the population mean.
CAIE S2 2019 June Q5
6 marks Challenging +1.2
5 The amount of money, in dollars, spent by a customer on one visit to a certain shop is modelled by the distribution \(\mathrm { N } ( \mu , 1.94 )\). In the past, the value of \(\mu\) has been found to be 20.00 , but following a rearrangement in the shop, the manager suspects that the value of \(\mu\) has changed. He takes a random sample of 6 customers and notes how much they each spend, in dollars. The results are as follows.
15.50
17.60
17.30
22.00
23.50
31.00 The manager carries out a hypothesis test using a significance level of \(\alpha \%\). The test does not support his suspicion. Find the largest possible value of \(\alpha\).
CAIE S2 2017 November Q3
4 marks Standard +0.3
3 After an election 153 adults, from a random sample of 200 adults, said that they had voted. Using this information, an \(\alpha \%\) confidence interval for the proportion of all adults who voted in the election was found to be 0.695 to 0.835 , both correct to 3 significant figures. Find the value of \(\alpha\), correct to the nearest integer.
CAIE S2 2015 November Q3
5 marks Standard +0.3
3 From a random sample of 65 people in a certain town, the proportion who own a bicycle was noted. From this result an \(\alpha \%\) confidence interval for the proportion, \(p\), of all people in the town who own a bicycle was calculated to be \(0.284 < p < 0.516\).
  1. Find the proportion of people in the sample who own a bicycle.
  2. Calculate the value of \(\alpha\) correct to 2 significant figures.
CAIE Further Paper 4 2021 November Q1
7 marks Standard +0.3
1 The times taken for students at a college to run 200 m have a normal distribution with mean \(\mu \mathrm { s }\). The times, \(x\) s, are recorded for a random sample of 10 students from the college. The results are summarised as follows, where \(\bar { x }\) is the sample mean. $$\bar { x } = 25.6 \quad \sum ( x - \bar { x } ) ^ { 2 } = 78.5$$
  1. Find a 90\% confidence interval for \(\mu\).
    A test of the null hypothesis \(\mu = k\) is carried out on this sample, using a \(10 \%\) significance level. The test does not support the alternative hypothesis \(\mu < k\).
  2. Find the greatest possible value of \(k\).
CAIE FP2 2009 June Q6
6 marks Standard +0.8
6 The times taken by employees in a factory to complete a certain task have a normal distribution with mean \(\mu\) seconds and standard deviation \(\sigma\) seconds, both of which are unknown. Based on a random sample of 20 employees, the symmetric \(95 \%\) confidence interval for \(\mu\) is \(( 481,509 )\). Calculate a symmetric \(90 \%\) confidence interval for \(\mu\).
[0pt] [6]
CAIE FP2 2015 June Q7
7 marks Challenging +1.2
7 A random sample of 8 sunflower plants is taken from the large number grown by a gardener, and the heights of the plants are measured. A 95\% confidence interval for the population mean, \(\mu\) metres, is calculated from the sample data as \(1.17 < \mu < 2.03\). Given that the height of a sunflower plant is denoted by \(x\) metres, find the values of \(\Sigma x\) and \(\Sigma x ^ { 2 }\) for this sample of 8 plants.
CAIE FP2 2016 June Q11 OR
Challenging +1.8
Petra is studying a particular species of bird. She takes a random sample of 12 birds from nature reserve \(A\) and measures the wing span, \(x \mathrm {~cm}\), for each bird. She then calculates a \(95 \%\) confidence interval for the population mean wing span, \(\mu \mathrm { cm }\), for birds of this species, assuming that wing spans are normally distributed. Later, she is not able to find the summary of the results for the sample, but she knows that the \(95 \%\) confidence interval is \(25.17 \leqslant \mu \leqslant 26.83\). Find the values of \(\sum x\) and \(\sum x ^ { 2 }\) for this sample. Petra also measures the wing spans of a random sample of 7 birds from nature reserve \(B\). Their wing spans, \(y \mathrm {~cm}\), are as follows. $$\begin{array} { l l l l l l l } 23.2 & 22.4 & 27.6 & 25.3 & 28.4 & 26.5 & 23.6 \end{array}$$ She believes that the mean wing span of birds found in nature reserve \(A\) is greater than the mean wing span of birds found in nature reserve \(B\). Assuming that this second sample also comes from a normal distribution, with variance the same as the first distribution, test, at the \(10 \%\) significance level, whether there is evidence to support Petra's belief.
CAIE FP2 2019 November Q6
7 marks Challenging +1.2
6 A random sample of 9 members is taken from the large number of members of a sports club, and their heights are measured. The heights of all the members of the club are assumed to be normally distributed. A 95\% confidence interval for the population mean height, \(\mu\) metres, is calculated from the data as \(1.65 \leqslant \mu \leqslant 1.85\).
  1. Find an unbiased estimate for the population variance.
  2. Denoting the height of a member of the club by \(x\) metres, find \(\Sigma x ^ { 2 }\) for this sample of 9 members.
Edexcel S3 2024 January Q6
15 marks Standard +0.3
  1. A random sample of 8 three-month-old golden retriever dogs is taken.
The heights of the golden retrievers are recorded.
Using this sample, a 95\% confidence interval for the mean height, in cm, of three-month-old golden retrievers is found to be \(( 45.72,53.88 )\)
  1. Find a 99\% confidence interval for the mean height. You may assume that the heights are normally distributed with known population standard deviation. Some summary statistics for the weights, \(x \mathrm {~kg}\), of this sample are given below. $$\sum x = 91.2 \quad \sum x ^ { 2 } = 1145.16 \quad n = 8$$
  2. Calculate unbiased estimates of the mean and the variance of the weights of three-month-old golden retrievers. A further random sample of 24 three-month-old golden retrievers is taken. The unbiased estimates of the mean and the variance of the weights, in kg , from this sample are found to be 10.8 and 17.64 respectively.
  3. Estimate the standard error of the mean weight for the combined sample of 32 three-month-old golden retrievers.
Edexcel S3 2018 June Q5
7 marks Standard +0.3
5. A factory produces steel sheets whose weights, \(X \mathrm {~kg}\), have a normal distribution with an unknown mean \(\mu \mathrm { kg }\) and known standard deviation \(\sigma \mathrm { kg }\). A random sample of 25 sheets gave both a
  • \(95 \%\) confidence interval for \(\mu\) of \(( 30.612,31.788 )\)
  • \(c \%\) confidence interval for \(\mu\) of \(( 30.66,31.74 )\)
    1. Find the value of \(\sigma\)
    2. Find the value of \(c\), giving your answer correct to 3 significant figures.
Edexcel S3 2007 June Q6
6 marks Standard +0.3
  1. A random sample of the daily sales (in £s) of a small company is taken and, using tables of the normal distribution, a 99\% confidence interval for the mean daily sales is found to be
    (123.5, 154.7)
Find a \(95 \%\) confidence interval for the mean daily sales of the company.
(6)
Edexcel S3 2013 June Q5
9 marks Standard +0.3
  1. A manufacturer produces circular discs with diameter \(D \mathrm {~mm}\), such that \(D \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( \mu , \sigma ^ { 2 } \right)\). A random sample of discs is taken and, using tables of the normal distribution, a \(90 \%\) confidence interval for \(\mu\) is found to be
    (118.8, 121.2)
    1. Find a 98\% confidence interval for \(\mu\).
    2. Hence write down a 98\% confidence interval for the circumference of the discs.
    Using three different random samples, three \(98 \%\) confidence intervals for \(\mu\) are to be found.
  2. Calculate the probability that all the intervals will contain \(\mu\).