An environmentalist wants to find out the fraction of oil tankers that have spills each month.

Step 2 of 2 : Suppose a sample of 292
tankers is drawn. Of these ships, 234
did not have spills. Using the data, construct the 80%
confidence interval for the population proportion of oil tankers that have spills each month. Round your answers to three decimal places.

1 answer

First, calculate the sample proportion of oil tankers that had spills:
Sample proportion (p-hat) = (292 - 234) / 292 = 58 / 292 = 0.199

Next, calculate the standard error:
Standard error = sqrt[(p-hat * (1 - p-hat)) / n] = sqrt[(0.199 * 0.801) / 292] = sqrt(0.159 / 292) = 0.023

Calculate the margin of error using the z-score for 80% confidence (z = 1.282):
Margin of error = z * standard error = 1.282 * 0.023 = 0.029

Finally, construct the confidence interval:
Lower bound = p-hat - margin of error = 0.199 - 0.029 = 0.170
Upper bound = p-hat + margin of error = 0.199 + 0.029 = 0.228

Therefore, the 80% confidence interval for the population proportion of oil tankers that have spills each month is (0.170, 0.228).