document.write( "Question 335722: The pre-med adviser of a liberal arts college is trying to determine the proportion of students entering the pre-med program who gain admission to medical school within 6 years of entering the program.
\n" ); document.write( "a. If she does no preliminary study, how many former students from the pre-med program must she contact to be 90% sure that the point estimate is within 0.1 unit of p?
\n" ); document.write( "b. A random sample of 36 former students from the pre-med program showed that 24 entered medical school within 6 years from the time they entered the program. How many more must she contact to be 90% sure that the point estimate is within 0.1 unit of p?
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Algebra.Com's Answer #240755 by jrfrunner(365)\"\" \"About 
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a. If she does no preliminary study, how many former students from the pre-med program must she contact to be 90% sure that the point estimate is within 0.1 unit of p?
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\n" ); document.write( "This implies you have no prior knowledge of the \"ball park\" level of the proportion of students gaining admission. In such cases, you use the conservative value of p=0.5 (because being Binomial in nature, its variance is highest at p=0.5)
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\n" ); document.write( "formula for required sample size is derived from the Margin of Error for a Normal approximation: \"ME=+Z%2ASqrt%28p%2A%281-p%29%2Fn%29\" and solving for n
\n" ); document.write( "\"n=Z%5E2%2Ap%2A%281-p%29%2F%28ME%29%5E2\"
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\n" ); document.write( "Given 90% confidence and assuming Normal approximation, Z=-\+1.645
\n" ); document.write( "\"n=1.645%5E2%2A%280.5%2A%281-0.5%29%29%2F0.1%5E2=67.65\" since we need whole numbers round up to 68
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\n" ); document.write( "\n" ); document.write( "b. A random sample of 36 former students from the pre-med program showed that 24 entered medical school within 6 years from the time they entered the program. How many more must she contact to be 90% sure that the point estimate is within 0.1 unit of p?
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\n" ); document.write( "Having done a preliminary study, you have prior \"ball park\" knowledge of p.
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\n" ); document.write( "Same as part a) but substitute p=24/36=0.67 instead of p=0.5
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