Answer:
E. No, it is not appropriate because the distribution of the population is skewed and the sample size is not large enough to satisfy the condition that the sampling distribution of the sample mean be approximately normal.
Step-by-step explanation:
Central Limit Theorem
The Central Limit Theorem estabilishes that, for a normally distributed random variable X, with mean and standard deviation
, the sampling distribution of the sample means with size n can be approximated to a normal distribution with mean
and standard deviation
.
For a skewed variable, the Central Limit Theorem can also be applied, as long as n is at least 30.
For a proportion p in a sample of size n, the sampling distribution of the sample proportion will be approximately normal with mean and standard deviation
In this question:
Standard deviation larger than the sample mean means that the distribution is skewed.
By the Central Limit Theorem, when the distribution is skewed, normality is assumed for samples sizes of 30 or higher. In this question, the sample is of 18, which is less than 30, so the hypothesis test is not appropriated, and the correct answer is given by option E.