Suppose that I am interested in creating a sampling distribution of the mean. The sample sizes are 40 and the population is undergraduate students. Given this information, tell me how you would create a sampling distribution of the mean for the variable of calories consumed per day.

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Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The Answer is Select one random sample of 40, calculate the mean for calories consumed per day, then throw that sample back into the population. Now randomly select another sample of the same size, calculate that sample's mean on the same statistic, and throw that sample back into the population. If you keep doing this, you'll eventually create a distribution of sample means, and this is called the sampling distribution of the mean. If randomly selected and the samples are big enough (e.g., 30 or more), the sampling distribution of the mean will form a normal distribution.

Suppose That I Am Interested in Creating a Sampling Distribution