Calculate the confidence interval for the expected value

Published on February 11, 2025

Statistics

The 95% confidence interval for the population mean is [66.04, 69.96], calculated using a sample mean of 68, a known variance of 22, and a sample size of 22. The minimum sample size needed to achieve a maximum confidence interval width of 1 is 338.

Question

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Answer

We are given a normally distributed random variable with unknown mean and known variance . We want to find a confidence interval for at a confidence level of .
A sample of size is taken, and the sample mean is .
First, we need to find the value of such that for a standard normal distribution , .
For a 95% confidence level, , and . We need to find the z-score such that , or .
From the standard normal distribution table or calculator, . So, .
The confidence interval for is given by:
Here, , , , and .
Lower bound:
Upper bound:
The 95% confidence interval for is .
Now, we need to find the minimum sample size such that the width of the confidence interval is at most for the same confidence level .
The width of the confidence interval is given by:
We want :
Square both sides:
Since must be an integer, we round up to the nearest integer: .
Therefore, the value of is .
The confidence interval is .
The minimum sample size is .
Final Answer: The final answer is