AP Statistics : How to find confidence intervals for a difference between two proportions

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for AP Statistics

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Confidence Intervals

    

   

Possible Answers:

   

     

    

Correct answer:

   

Explanation:

    

Example Question #1 : Confidence Intervals

In a simple random sample of  people,  are left-handed. Find a  confidence interval for the true proportion of left-handed people in the entire population.

Possible Answers:

The sample is not sufficiently large. A confidence interval cannot be used.

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Step 1: Determine the approporiate formula. In this case, the statistic is a proportion because the question says 261 people out of 1000 are left-handed. We want to use a confidence interval for proportions. The equation is

Step 2: , or the sample proportion is equal to 

Step 3: The questions asks for a 95% confidence interval. You can assume a normal distribution because of the large sample size. Therefore, in a normal distribution, 95% of the data is contained within .

Step 4: Substitue all the values into the equation to get the answer.

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