Question

Gender and Gun Control A survey reported in Time magazine included the question ‘‘Do you favor a federal law requiring a 15 day waiting period to purchase a gun?" Results from a random sample of US citizens showed that 318 of the 520 men who were surveyed supported this proposed law while 379 of the 460 women sampled said ‘‘yes". Use this information to find a 99% confidence interval for the difference in the two proportions, , where is the proportion of men who support the proposed law and is the proportion of women who support the proposed law. Round your answers to three decimal places.

Answer 1

`(0.612-0.824) - 2.58 \sqrt{(0.612(1-0.612))/(520) +(0.824(1-0.824))/(460)}=-0.284`

`(0.612-0.824) + 2.58 \sqrt{(0.612(1-0.612))/(520) +(0.824(1-0.824))/(460)}=-0.140`

And the 99% confidence interval would be given (-0.284;-0.140).

We are confident at 99% that the difference between the two proportions is between
`-0.284 \leq p_M -p_W \leq -0.140`

Explanation:

Previous conceps

A confidence interval is "a range of values that’s likely to include a population value with a certain degree of confidence. It is often expressed a % whereby a population means lies between an upper and lower interval".

The margin of error is the range of values below and above the sample statistic in a confidence interval.

Normal distribution, is a "probability distribution that is symmetric about the mean, showing that data near the mean are more frequent in occurrence than data far from the mean".

Solution to the problem

`p_M` represent the real population proportion of men who support the prosed law

`\hat p_M =(318)/(520)=0.612` represent the estimated proportion of men who support the prosed law

`n_M=520` is the sample size required for male

`p_W` represent the real population proportion of women who support the prosed law

`\hat p_W =(379)/(460)=0.824` represent the estimated proportion of women who support the prosed law

`n_W=460` is the sample size required for female

`z` represent the critical value for the margin of error

The population proportion have the following distribution

`p \sim N(p,\sqrt{(p(1-p))/(n)})`

The confidence interval for the difference of two proportions would be given by this formula

`(\hat p_M -\hat p_W) \pm z_(\alpha/2) \sqrt{(\hat p_M(1-\hat p_M))/(n_M) +(\hat p_W (1-\hat p_W))/(n_W)}`

For the 95% confidence interval the value of
`\alpha=1-0.99=0.01` and
`\alpha/2=0.005`, with that value we can find the quantile required for the interval in the normal standard distribution.

`z_(\alpha/2)=2.58`

And replacing into the confidence interval formula we got:

`(0.612-0.824) - 2.58 \sqrt{(0.612(1-0.612))/(520) +(0.824(1-0.824))/(460)}=-0.284`

`(0.612-0.824) + 2.58 \sqrt{(0.612(1-0.612))/(520) +(0.824(1-0.824))/(460)}=-0.140`

And the 99% confidence interval would be given (-0.284;-0.140).

We are confident at 99% that the difference between the two proportions is between
`-0.284 \leq p_M -p_W \leq -0.140`