A research scientist wants to know how many times per hour a certain strand of bacteria reproduces. He believes that the mean is 12.6. Assume the variance is known to be 3.61. How large of a sample would be required in order to estimate the mean number of reproductions per hour at the 95% confidence level with an error of at most 0.19 reproductions

A sample of 385 is needed.

Step-by-step explanation:

We have that to find our level, that is the subtraction of 1 by the confidence interval divided by 2. So:

Now, we have to find z in the Ztable as such z has a pvalue of .

That is z with a pvalue of , so Z = 1.96.

Now, find the margin of error M as such

In which is the standard deviation of the population, which is the square root of the variance, and n is the size of the sample.

Assume the variance is known to be 3.61.

This means that

How large of a sample would be required in order to estimate the mean number of reproductions per hour at the 95% confidence level with an error of at most 0.19 reproductions?

A sample of n is needed.

n is found when . So

Rounding up

A sample of 385 is needed.

0.02040816326

table 3 represents a direct variation function. : )