Question

If you wanted to estimate the mean height of all students at a university, which of the following sampling strategies would be best? Why?
Note that none of the methods are true simple random samples.
a. Measure the heights of 50 students found in the gym during basketball intramurals.
b. Measure the heights of all engineering majors.
c. Measure the heights of the students selected by choosing the first name on each page of the campus phone book.

Answer 1

Answer:

c.

Step-by-step explanation:

Hello!

To take a sample to estimate the mean height of all students at a university and that the value you reach is statistically valid you need the sampling method to be random and representative of the whole population, in this example, all university students.

a. Measure the heights of 50 students found in the gym during basketball intramurals.

This method is not the best because you would be sampling only basketball players leaving all other students of the university outside, i.e. your sample will not be representative of all the students, just the ones that play basketball.

b. Measure the heights of all engineering majors.

This method is not good, the sample only represents engineering mayors meaning that it does not include the students of any other subjects.

c. Measure the heights of the students selected by choosing the first name on each page of the campus phone book.

With this method you choose students regardless of the sport or major they're are taking, it is more representative of the population of university students, of the three options, this is the best one.

I hope it helps!