Question

The poll found that 38% of a random sample of 1012 American adults said they believe in ghosts. What is the lower bound for a 90% confidence interval for the percentage of all American adults who believe in ghosts?

Answer 1

Answer:

The lower bound for a 90% confidence interval for the percentage of all American adults who believe in ghosts is 0.3549

Step-by-step explanation:

In a sample with a number n of people surveyed with a probability of a success of $\pi$, and a confidence level of $1-\alpha$, we have the following confidence interval of proportions.

$\pi \pm z\sqrt{\frac{\pi(1-\pi)}{n}}$

In which

z is the zscore that has a pvalue of $1 - \frac{\alpha}{2}$.

For this problem, we have that:

$n = 1012, \pi = 0.38$

90% confidence level

So $\alpha = 0.1$, z is the value of Z that has a pvalue of $1 - \frac{0.1}{2} = 0.95$, so $Z = 1.645$.

The lower limit of this interval is:

$\pi - z\sqrt{\frac{\pi(1-\pi)}{n}} = 0.38 - 1.645\sqrt{\frac{0.38*0.62}{1012}} = 0.3549$

The lower bound for a 90% confidence interval for the percentage of all American adults who believe in ghosts is 0.3549