Question

A poultry farmer wishes to estimate the average incubation period (the number of days between a hen laying her egg and the time the egg hatches) for eggs on his farm. He plans to take a sample and make a 98% confidence interval, and would like a margin of error of half a day. It is known that the distribution of incubation lengths has a standard deviation of 1.5 days. How many eggs does he need to sample to create the desired interval

Answer 1

Answer:

49 eggs.

Step-by-step explanation:

The formula for Margin of Error =

z × standard deviation/√number of samples

z = z score of 98% confidence interval = 2.326

Margin of Error = Half a day = 1/2day = 0.5 day

Standard deviation = 1.5 days

Number of samples = number of eggs he needs to sample = unknown.

Imputing these above values into the formula

Margin of Error = z × standard deviation/√number of samples

0.5 = 2.326 × 1.5/√n

Cross Multiply

0.5 × √n = 2.326 × 1.5

√n = 2.326 × 1.5/0.5

√n = 3.489/0.5

√n = 6.978

Square both sides

(√n)² = 6.978²

n = 48.692484

n ≈ Approximately to the nearest whole number = 49

Therefore, the number of eggs he needs to sample to create the desired interval is approximately to the nearest whole number 49 eggs