Question

The local Girl Scout troupe wants to know how to price the raffle tickets for their up-coming fund drive. To find out what people are willing to pay for a ticket to win a romantic weekend in Gatlinburg, they use a survey and solicit customers entering a local Kroger’s grocery to take the survey. Survey takers are asked if they would buy a $10 ticket with the following possible responses: maybe, never, probably, and certainly. • Determine whether this study corresponds to an observational study or an experiment. • Are these responses qualitative or quantitative? • Determine which of the four levels of measurement is most appropriate for these responses. • Identify the population of this study. • Identify the sample of this study. • Identify the sampling methods. • Is this sample likely to be representative of the population? Explain your answer

Answer 1

1. The study corresponds to an observational study.

2. The responses are categorical, so they are qualitative in nature.

3. The responses can be ordered with increasing probability of buying ticket: never, maybe, probably and certainly. So, ordinal scale of measurement is most appropriate for the responses.

4. Here the population is people, willing to pay for a ticket to win a romantic weekend in Gatlinburg.

5. The sample is the customers entering a local Kroger’s grocery.

6. This is an example of convenient sampling.

7. The sample is not likely to be good representative of the population, since, the sample is being selected based on convenience.