Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Sampling Distributions LEARNING GOAL Understand the fundamental ideas of sampling distributions and how the distribution of sample means and the distribution of sample proportions are formed. Also learn the notation used to represent sample means and proportions.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide Sample Means: The Basic Idea Consider the weights of the five starting players on a professional basketball team. We regard these five players as the entire population (with a mean of pounds). With a sample size of n = 1: there are 5 different samples that could be selected: Each player is a sample. The mean of each sample of size n = 1 is simply the weight of the player in the sample. Q:What is the mean of the distribution of sample means?

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide With a sample size of n = 2: in which each sample consists of two different players. With five players, there are 10 different samples of size n = 2. Each sample has its own mean. Q: What is the mean of the distribution of sample means with sample size n=2?

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide The mean of the distribution of sample means is equal to the population mean, pounds.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide Ten different samples of size n = 3 are possible in a population of five players. Table 8.3 shows these samples and their means, and Figure 8.3 shows the distribution of these sample means. Again, the mean of the distribution of sample means is equal to the population mean, pounds.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide With a sample size of n = 4, only 5 different samples are possible. Table 8.4 shows these samples and their means, and Figure 8.4 shows the distribution of these sample means.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide Finally, for a population of five players, there is only 1 possible sample of size n = 5: the entire population. In this case, the distribution of sample means is just a single bar (Figure 8.5). Again the mean of the distribution of sample means is the population mean, pounds. Figure 8.5 Sampling distribution for sample size n = 5. To summarize, when we work with all possible samples of a population of a given size, the mean of the distribution of sample means is always the population mean.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide Sample Means with Larger Populations In typical statistical applications, populations are huge and it is impractical or expensive to survey every individual in the population; consequently, we rarely know the true population mean, μ. Therefore, it makes sense to consider using the mean of a sample to estimate the mean of the entire population. Although a sample is easier to work with, it cannot possibly represent the entire population exactly. Therefore, we should not expect an estimate of the population mean obtained from a sample to be perfect. The error that we introduce by working with a sample is called the sampling error.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide Sampling Error The sampling error is the error introduced because a random sample is used to estimate a population parameter. It does not include other sources of error, such as those due to biased sampling, bad survey questions, or recording mistakes.

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide Notation for Population and Sample Means n = sample size  = population mean x = sample mean ¯

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide The Distribution of Sample Means The distribution of sample means is the distribution that results when we find the means of all possible samples of a given size. The larger the sample size, the more closely this distribution approximates a normal distribution. In all cases, the mean of the distribution of sample means equals the population mean. If only one sample is available, its sample mean, x, is the best estimate for the population mean, . ¯ x

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide Texas has roughly 225,000 farms, more than any other state in the United States. The actual mean farm size is μ = 582 acres and the standard deviation is σ = 150 acres. For random samples of n = 100 farms, find the mean and standard deviation of the distribution of sample means. What is the probability of selecting a random sample of 100 farms with a mean greater than 600 acres? EXAMPLE Sampling Farms

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide Notation for Population and Sample Proportions n = sample size p = population proportion p = sample proportion ˆ

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide EXAMPLE: Sample and population Proportions. The college of Los Angeles had 2,444 students and 269 of them are left-handed. You conduct a survey of 50 students and find that 8 of them are left-handed. a. What is the population proportion of left-handed students? b. What is the sample proportion of left-handed students? c. Does your sample appear to be representative of the college?

Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education. All rights reserved Slide The Distribution of Sample Proportions The distribution of sample proportions is the distribution that results when we find the proportions ( ) in all possible samples of a given size. The larger the sample size, the more closely this distribution approximates a normal distribution. In all cases, the mean of the distribution of sample proportions equals the population proportion. If only one sample is available, its sample proportion,, is the best estimate for the population proportion, p. ˆ p ˆ p