Question

A random sample of 100 college students is taken from the student body of a large university Assume that, in fact, a population mean of 20 hours and a standard deviation of 15 hours describe the weekly study estimates for the entire student body. Therefore, the sampling distribution of the mean has a mean that:________.

a) approximates 20 hours.
b) equals 20 hours.
c) lies within a couple of hours of 20.
d) equals the one observed sample mean.

Answer 1

b) equals 20 hours.

Explanation:

The sampling distribution of means refers to the distribution of all the possible sample means, with a certain sample size (in this case, n=100) extracted from the population.

The sampling distribution of the means is equal to the population mean. That does not mean that every sample will result in a mean equal to the population, but that the population of sample means will have an average of 20 hours.