ST205 Sample Surveys and Experiments

Second Exercise - to be handed in at the end of week 3 or as advised by your class

teacher.
1. The values in a population of size 12 are (1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3, 1, 3),
where the population units are listed in the particular order shown.
Consider the four following designs which could be used to select a sample:
A. Simple random sampling with size n = 3;
B. Simple random sampling with size n = 4;
C. Systematic sampling with size n = 3;
D. Systematic sampling with size n = 4.
(Maintain the above ordering for the systematic sampling).
a) For each of the four designs A, B, C and D, use random numbers to draw the
samples - use different random numbers in each case so that the two samples
are independent.

b) How many essentially different samples are there for each of the designs A, B,
C and D? [To be clear, samples (1,3,3,1) and (3,3,1,1) are essentially the same
but (1,3,3,1) and (1,1,1,3) are essentially different.]

c) For each sample, write down the sample mean and the estimation error [the
difference between the actual population mean and it estimate from the
sample].

d) Based solely on the estimation errors you have calculated, does one design
seem to be preferable to the others?

2. The simple random sampling design considered so far in the lectures should more
precisely be called simple random sampling without replacement, because it is not
possible to select the same population unit more than once. A simple random
sampling with replacement design consists of selecting a sequence of n units, where
each unit is obtained by selecting one unit from the whole population at random, and
the selection of each unit is undertaken independently. It is possible under this
design that any given population unit may be selected more than once.
a) If just a single unit is drawn at random from the whole population and y1 is
the value of y for this sampled unit, show that the expected value of y1 is given by μ
(the population mean).
b) It can also be shown that the variance of y1 is given by (1 − 1/N)σ2 (where N
is the population size and σ2 the population variance).
Deduce that the variance of the sample mean under the simple random sampling
with replacement design is given by (1 − 1/N)σ2/n.
c) Compare this expression with that for simple random sampling without
replacement, and comment on which design leads to more precise estimation.

3. The books in a library are kept on 170 shelves of similar size. The number of books
on 16 shelves, selected by simple random sampling, were found to be:
28,33,25,33,31,28,22,29,30,32,26,30,21,28,25,26
a) Estimate the total number XT of books in the library.
b) Suppose that the population standard deviation of the number of books on a
shelf is σ = 4.
What is the standard error of your estimate of XT?
(c) How many shelves should be included in the sample to ensure that the
standard error of the estimate is less than 50?