To estimate the average number of hours teenagers spend on social media daily based on the three samples collected, you can calculate the overall average of the sample means. Here are the steps:
-
List the sample means:
- Sample 1: 2.8 hours
- Sample 2: 3.1 hours
- Sample 3: 2.9 hours
-
Calculate the overall average: \[ \text{Overall Average} = \frac{\text{Sample 1} + \text{Sample 2} + \text{Sample 3}}{3} \]
Substituting in the sample means: \[ \text{Overall Average} = \frac{2.8 + 3.1 + 2.9}{3} \]
-
Perform the calculations:
- Sum of the sample means: \(2.8 + 3.1 + 2.9 = 8.8\)
- Divide by the number of samples: \[ \text{Overall Average} = \frac{8.8}{3} \approx 2.9333 \]
Thus, the estimated average number of hours teenagers spend on social media daily is approximately 2.93 hours.
Additional Considerations
If the researcher wishes to estimate the population mean with more precision, they could also calculate the standard deviation within each sample and use it to determine the confidence interval for the population mean. This would require additional data not provided here.