Chapter 12, Problem 1T

Politicians in the Florida Keys need to know if the residents of Key Largo think the amount of money charged for water is reasonable. The politicians decide to conduct a survey of a sample of Key Largo's residents. Which procedure would be most appropriate for a sample of Key Largo's residents?

a. Survey all water customers who pay their water bills at Key Largo City Hall on the third day of the month,

b. Survey a random sample of executives who work for the water company in Key Largo.

c. Survey 5000 individuals who are randomly selected from a list of all people living in Georgia and Florida.

d. Survey a random sample of persons within each neighborhood of Key Largo.

To determine

The correct answer out of the given options.

Answer to Problem 1T

Solution:

Survey a random sample of persons within each neighborhood of Key Largo. Therefore, option d is correct.

Explanation of Solution

Given:

The politicians of the Florida Keys want to know the response of the people of Key Largo regarding the amount charged for the water there. The options are given as follows:

Option (a) is given as Survey all water customers who pay their water bills at Key Largo City Hall on the third day of the month.

Option (b) is given as Survey a random sample of executives who work for the water company in Key Largo.

Option (c) is given as Survey 5000 individuals who are randomly selected from a list of all people living in Georgia and Florida.

Option (d) is given as survey a random sample of persons within each neighborhood of Key Largo.

Explanation:

Whenever there is a need to generalize a large population size, there should be equal chance of selecting for every member. Random sampling is a way to achieve the equal chance to everyone in the population.

Surveying a random sample of people within each neighborhood of Key Largo will ensure that the responses of those people represent the responses of the people from all over Key Largo. So, this random sample is a generalization of the whole population. Option (d) is given as survey a random sample of persons within each neighborhood of Key Largo.