Background Information: The goal of a confidence interval is to estimate a population parameter based on a sample statistic. All confidence intervals have the form: point estimate ± margin-of-error.
Part 1
Example 1: Colors of Reese’s Pieces Consider the population of the Reese’s Pieces candies manufactured by Hershey. Suppose that you want to learn about the distribution of colors of these candies but that you can only afford to take a sample of 25 candies.
a) Take a random sample of 25 candies and record the number and proportion of each color in your sample. (Use this applet to get your sample http://www.rossmanchance.com/applets/OneProp/OneProp.htm?candy=1)
b) Is the proportion of orange candies among the 25 that you selected a parameter or a statistic?
c) Is the proportion of orange candies manufactured by Hershey’s process a parameter or a statistic? What symbol represents it?
d) Do you know the value of the proportion of orange candies manufactured by Hershey?
e) Do you know the value of the proportion of orange candies among the 25 that you selected?
f) Do you suspect that every student in the class obtained the same proportion of orange candies in his/her sample?