A sample of 400 items is taken from a population whose standard deviation is 10. The mean of the sample is 40. Test whether the sample has come from a population with mean 38. Also calculate 95% confidence interval for the population.

Answer 1

Z = (mean1 - mean2)/standard error (SE) of difference between means

SEdiff = √(SEmean1^2 + SEmean2^2)

SEm = SD/√n

If only one SD is provided, you can use just that to determine SEdiff.

Find table in the back of your statistics text labeled something like "areas under normal distribution" to find the proportion/probability related to your Z score and level of significance.

95% = mean ± 1.96 SEm