Maritza plays in a softball league. She wants to know about how many players in the league also play basketball. Because there are 225 players in the league, she chooses the names of 45 of the players and asks them whether they also play basketball. Describe the population and the sample. What is the size of the population, and what is the size of the sample? Show your work please, don't just put the answers.

1 answer

In the scenario, Maritza is interested in understanding how many players in her softball league also play basketball. To achieve this, we need to distinguish between the population and the sample.

Population

The population refers to the complete set of individuals that meet a certain criterion. In this case, Maritza's population consists of all the players in the softball league.

Population:

  • Definition: All players participating in the softball league.
  • Size of Population: 225 players.

Sample

The sample is a subset of the population that is selected for the purpose of data collection and analysis. Maritza has chosen 45 players out of the total 225 players to ask if they also play basketball. This group of 45 is her sample.

Sample:

  • Definition: A subset of the population that Maritza selected to gather information from.
  • Size of Sample: 45 players.

Summary of Sizes

  • Size of Population = 225 players (the total number of players in the league).
  • Size of Sample = 45 players (the number of players Maritza asked about playing basketball).

By identifying the population and the sample in this manner, we can see that Maritza is gathering data from a smaller group (the sample) to make inferences about the larger group (the population) regarding their involvement in basketball.