Question 7.84

7.84 Average hours per week on the Internet.

The Student Monitor surveys 1200 undergraduates from 100 colleges semiannually to understand trends among college students.33 Recently, the Student Monitor reported that the average amount of time spent per week on the Internet was 19.0 hours. You suspect that this amount is far too small for your campus and plan a survey.

  1. You feel that a reasonable estimate of the standard deviation is 12.5 hours. What sample size is needed so that the expected margin of error of your estimate is not larger than one hour for 95% confidence?
  2. The distribution of times is likely to be heavily skewed to the right. Do you think that this skewness will invalidate the use of the confidence interval in this case? Explain your answer.