In a survey of 110 shoppers at a grocery store, 23 said they use coupons regularly. Given a 95% level of confidence with a z-score of 1.96, what is the margin of error, rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent?(1 point)

1 answer

To calculate the margin of error for a proportion at a 95% confidence level, you can use the formula:

\[ \text{Margin of Error} = z \times \sqrt{\frac{p(1-p)}{n}} \]

where:

  • \( z \) is the z-score for the desired confidence level (1.96 for 95% confidence),
  • \( p \) is the sample proportion, and
  • \( n \) is the sample size.

First, we need to calculate the sample proportion \( p \). In this case, 23 out of 110 shoppers use coupons regularly, so:

\[ p = \frac{23}{110} \approx 0.2091 \]

Now we calculate \( 1 - p \):

\[ 1 - p = 1 - 0.2091 \approx 0.7909 \]

Next, we can find the standard error:

\[ \sqrt{\frac{p(1-p)}{n}} = \sqrt{\frac{0.2091 \times 0.7909}{110}} \]

Calculating the numerator:

\[ 0.2091 \times 0.7909 \approx 0.1652 \]

Now dividing by \( n = 110 \):

\[ \frac{0.1652}{110} \approx 0.0015 \]

Now, we take the square root:

\[ \sqrt{0.0015} \approx 0.0387 \]

Finally, we multiply by the z-score to find the margin of error:

\[ \text{Margin of Error} = 1.96 \times 0.0387 \approx 0.0758 \]

To express the margin of error as a percentage, we multiply by 100:

\[ 0.0758 \times 100 \approx 7.58% \]

Rounding to the nearest tenth of a percent, the margin of error is:

\[ \boxed{7.6%} \]