A federal report stated that 88% of children under 18 were covered by health insurance in 2000. How large a sample is needed to estimate the true proportion of covered children with 90% confidence with a confidence interval of .05 wide?

2 Answers
Apr 15, 2018

#n = 115#

Explanation:

Do you mean with a margin of error of #5%#?

The formula for a confidence interval for a proportion is given by #hat p +- ME#, where #ME = z#* #* SE (hat p)#.

  • #hat p# is the sample proportion
  • #z#* is the critical value of #z#, which you can obtain from a graphing calculator or a table
  • #SE(hat p)# is the standard error of the sample proportion, which can be found using #sqrt ((hat p hat q)/n)#, where #hat q = 1 - hat p# and #n# is the sample size

We know that the margin of error should be #0.05#. With a #90%# confidence interval, #z#* #~~ 1.64#.

#ME = z#* #* SE (hat p)#

#0.05 = 1.64 * sqrt ((0.88 * 0.12)/n)#

We can now solve for #n# algebraically. We get #n ~~ 114.2#, which we round up to #115# because a sample size of #114# would be too small.

We need at least #115# children to estimate the true proportion of children who are covered by health insurance with #90%# confidence and a margin of error of #5%#.

Apr 15, 2018

458

Explanation:

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