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Chapter 1: Q9BSC (page 1)

Determine whether the sampling method appears to be sound or is flawed.

Nuclear Power Plants. In a survey of 1368 subjects, the following question was posted on the USA Today website: “In your view, are nuclear plants safe?” The survey subjects were Internet users who chose to respond to the question posted on the electronic edition of USA Today.

Short Answer

Expert verified

The sampling method is flawed.

Step by step solution

01

Given information

  • The survey question enquires whether nuclear plants are safe or not.
  • The number of subjects who took the survey was 1368.
  • The respondents were net users who self-participated in the survey. The question of the survey was published in the electronic edition (website) of USA Today.
02

Explain the sampling method

The survey comprises the responses from subjects (participants of the study) who volunteered to answer the questions on the internet. Thus, the sampling method is volunteer sampling.

Moreover, the responses were taken only from those readers who read the electronic edition of USA Today.

03

Explain if the sampling method is flawed or sound

The volunteer response sampling is a biased method as the subjects do not represent the entire population.

The sampling must be done randomly to derive accurate results in the study.

Thus, the sampling method is flawed.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

In Exercises 17–20, refer to the sample of body temperatures (degrees Fahrenheit) in the table below. (The body temperatures are from a data set in Appendix B.)

Source: The listed body temperatures were obtained from Dr. Steven Wasserman, Dr. Philip Mackowiak, and Dr. Myron Levine, who were researchers at the University of Maryland. Is the source of the data likely to be biased?

In Exercises 21–24, refer to the data in the table below. The entries are white blood cell counts (1000 cells,ML) and red blood cell counts (million cells,ML) from male subjects examined as part of a large health study conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. The data are matched, so that the first subject has a white blood cell count of 8.7 and a red blood cell count of 4.91, and so on.

Subject


12345
White8.75.97.36.25.9
Red4.915.594.444.85.17

Conclusion: If we analyze the sample data and conclude that there is a correlation between white blood cell counts and red blood cell counts, does it follow that higher white blood cell counts are the cause of higher red blood cell counts?

In Exercises 29–36, answer the given questions, which are related to percentages.

Percentages in Advertising: An ad for Big Skinny wallets included the statement that one of their wallets “reduces your filled wallet size by 50%–200%.” What is wrong with this statement?

Parameter and Statistic In a Harris Interactive survey of 2276 adults in the United States, it was found that 33% of those surveyed never travel using commercial airlines. Identify the population and sample. Is the value of 33% a statistic or a parameter?

Determine whether the data are from discrete data or continuous data set.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety collects data consisting of the numbers of motor vehicle fatalities caused by driving while texting.
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