Question

How Many Close Confidants Do People Have? In a recent study,1 2006 randomly selected US adults (age 18 or older) were asked to give the number of people in the last six months with whom you discussed matters that are important to you. The average number of close confidants was 2.2, with a standard deviation of 1.4. Hampton, K.,. Goulet, L., Rainie, L., and Purcell, K, "Social Networking Sites and Our Lives.' Pew Research Center.

(a) Find the margin of error for this estimate if we want 99% Round your answer to three decimal place

Answer 1

0.08065

Explanation:

Given that in a recent study,1 2006 randomly selected US adults (age 18 or older) were asked to give the number of people in the last six months with whom you discussed matters that are important to you.

If X is random variable then X has mean 2.2 and s = 1.4

n=2006

Std error of mean =
`(1.4)/(√(2006) ) \\=0.03126`

For 99% since sample size is large, t and z distn almost coincide.

Hence we can take 2.58 as critical value

Margin of error at 99% =
`2.58*0.03126\\=0.08065`