Advanced Math Topics 8.2 Selecting a Random Sample

Obtaining a random sample is very important in obtaining accurate information about a population. In 1936, the Literary Digest sent out ten million surveys to a list of its subscribers and to people in the telephone listing. After reviewing their two million returned ballots, they concluded that Alfred E. Landon would win the election. Franklin Roosevelt carried 46 of the 48 states and won the election by a landslide. The sample that the newspaper took was not a random sample. Why? Some ways to obtain a complete random sample include using a random number generator on a computer or calculator, placing numbers in a hat and selecting them, or using a table of random numbers(Table VI in the appendix).

A college of 30,000 students wants to interview 8 randomly selected students to ask them about the new university logo. Each student has been assigned a number from to 30,000. Using column 1 in your table, randomly select 8 student numbers. Col./Line(1) Student #’s 10480, 22368, 24130, 28918, 09429, 28918, 09429, 10365, 07119, ,000 pick 8

A hotel wants to randomly select 10 of its 750 guests for a customer satisfaction survey. Using column 4, randomly select 10 hotel guest numbers. (4) Guest #’s 020, 616, 166, 427, 699, 079, 102, , pick 10

From the HW P ) Each welfare recipient in Lawrence has a case number from 1 to Government officials are going to audit 20 recipients randomly. Using columns 13 and 14, select the case numbers. The case numbers are 0126, 1063, 0558, 1859, 2997, 2855, 0594, 2562, 1829, 0784, 1277, 2056, 0010, 0654, 2372, 1637, 1295, 2285, 1851, and 2528.

HW P. 405 #2, 4, 7-10