Chapter 1, Problem 8CE

For the following situations, would you collect information using a sample or a population? Why?

1. a. Statistics 201 is a course taught at a university. Professor Rauch has taught nearly 1,500 students in the course over the past 5 years. You would like to know the average grade for the course.
2. b. As part of a research project, you need to report the average profit as a percentage of revenue for the #1-ranked corporation in the Fortune 500 for each of the last 10 years.
3. c. You are looking forward to graduation and your first job as a salesperson for one of five large pharmaceutical corporations. Planning for your interviews, you will need to know about each company’s mission, profitability, products, and markets.
4. d. You are shopping for a new MP3 music player such as the Apple iPod. The manufacturers advertise the number of music tracks that can be stored in the memory. Usually, the advertisers assume relatively short, popular songs to estimate the number of tracks that can be stored. You, however, like Broadway musical tunes and they are much longer. You would like to estimate how many Broadway tunes will fit on your MP3 player.