CHAPTER 5

Sampling Distribution

BBBQT1224
Business Statistic
Sampling Distribution of
the Sample Means
The sampling distribution of
the sample mean is a
probability distribution
consisting of all possible
sample means of a given
sample size selected from the
population.
Properties of the Sampling
Distribution of the 𝑋ത
Comparing the population distribution and
the sampling distribution of the mean:
The sampling distribution is more bell-
shaped and symmetric.
Both have the same center.
The sampling distribution of the mean is
more compact, with a smaller variance.
Relationships between Population
parameters and the Sampling
Distribution of 𝑥ҧ
The expected value of the sample mean
is equal to the population mean:
𝐸 𝑥ҧ = 𝜇𝑥ҧ = 𝜇𝑥
The variance of the sample mean is:
𝜎
𝑉(𝑥) = 𝜎𝑥2ҧ =
𝑛
Example:
Automobile Industries has seven production
employees ( considered the population).
The hourly earning of each employee are
given in the table below.
Hourly Earning of the Production Employees of Automobile Industries
Employee Hourly Employee Hourly
Earnings Earnings

Joe RM 7 Zen RM 7

Sam RM 7 Att RM 8

Chu RM 8 Ted RM 9

Bob RM 8
Example:
1. What is the population mean?
2. What is the sampling distribution of
the sample of the mean for sample of
size 2?
3. What is the mean of the sampling
distribution?
4. What observations can be made about
the population and the sampling
distribution?
Solution:
1. The population mean is
σ𝑥 7 + 7 + 8 + 8 + 7 + 8 + 9
𝜇= = = 7.714
𝑁 7

2. To obtain the sample mean at the sample

distribution, we select all possible samples of 2
without replacement from the population, then
we only calculate the mean of each sample.
𝑁 7
𝐶𝑛 = 𝐶2 = 21
So, there are 21 possible outcomes samples.
 Continue:
Sample Means for 21 possible samples of 2 Employees

Sample Employee Hourly Sum Mean Sample Employee Hourly Sum Mean
Earning Earning

1 Joe, Sam 7, 7 14 7.00 12 Chu,Bob 8, 8 16 8.00

2 Joe, Chu 7, 8 15 7.50 13 Chu,Zen 8, 7 15 7.50
3 Joe, Bob 7, 8 15 7.50 14 Chu, Att 8, 8 16 8.00
4 Joe, Zen 7, 7 14 7.00 15 Chu, Ted 8, 9 17 8.50
5 Joe, Att 7, 8 15 7.50 16 Bob, Jan 8, 7 15 7.50
6 Joe, Ted 7, 9 16 8.00 17 Bob, Att 8, 8 16 8.00
7 Sam, Chu 7, 8 15 7.50 18 Bob, Ted 8, 9 17 8.50
8 Sam, Bob 7, 8 15 7.50 19 Zen, Att 7, 8 15 7.50
9 Sam, Zen 7, 7 14 7.00 20 Zen, Ted 7, 9 16 8.00
10 Sam, Att 7, 8 15 7.50 21 Att, Ted 8, 9 17 8.50
11 Sam, Ted 7, 9 16 8.00
Continue…
Mean of sampling distribution:

𝑆𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛

𝜇𝑋ത =
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑢𝑚 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠

7 + 7.5 + 7.5 + ⋯
= = 7.71
21
 Observation about the population
and sampling distribution.

Population distribution Distribution of sample mean

Probability
Probability

0.40 0.40

0.30 0.30

0.20 0.20

0.10 0.10

7 𝜇 8 9 7 7.5 𝜇𝑋ത 8 9
Hourly Earning 𝑋ത Sample mean Hourly Earning

The Shape of histogram for sample means is quite unlike the

shape of histogram for population. The sample means from
a distribution that approaches a symmetrical nearly normal-
curve-type distribution.
 The Central Limit Theorem
When Sampling from a population with
mean 𝜇 and finite standard deviation 𝜎,
the sampling distribution of the sample
mean will tend to a normal distribution
with mean and standard deviation as the
sample size, 𝑛 become large 𝑛 > 30 .

𝜎2
For “large enough” ത
𝑛: 𝑋~𝑁 𝜇,
𝑛
Continue…
 This means that, as the sample size increases,
the sampling distribution of the sample mean
remains centered on the population mean, but
becomes more compactly distributed around
population mean.
 Even if data are not normally distributed,
as long as you take “large enough”
samples, regardless of the distribution,
the sample average will at least be
approximately normally distributed.
 Central limiting effect
the sampling
As the distribution
sample size becomes almost
gets large normal
enough… regardless of
shape of
population
 If the Population is not Normal
(continued)
Population Distribution
Sampling distribution properties:

Central Tendency
μx  μ
μ
Variation Sampling Distribution
σ (becomes normal as n increases)
σx  Larger
n Smaller sample sample
size size
(Sampling with
replacement)
μx
 How Large is Large Enough?

For most distributions, n ≥ 30 will give a

sampling distribution that is nearly normal

For fairly symmetric distributions, n ≥ 5

For normal population distributions, the

sampling distribution of the mean is always
normally distributed
Using the Sampling Distribution of
the Sample Mean (Sigma Known)
 If a population follows the normal
distribution, the sampling distribution of the
sample mean will also follow the normal
distribution.
 Is sample mean are normally distributed, the
z-score formula applied would be:
𝑋ത − 𝜇𝑥ҧ 𝑋 − 𝜇
𝑍= =
𝜎𝑥ҧ 𝜎2
𝑛
 Example

Suppose a population has mean μ = 8

and standard deviation σ = 3. Suppose a
random sample of size n = 36 is selected.

What is the probability that the sample

mean is between 7.8 and 8.2?
 Example
(continued)

Solution:

 Even if the population is not normally distributed, the central

limit theorem can be used (n > 30)

 … so the sampling distribution of x is approximately normal

 … with mean μx = 8

 …and standard deviation

σ 3
σx    0.5
n 36
 Example
(continued)
Solution (continued):

 μ 
 7.8 - 8 X - 8.2 - 8 
P(7.8  X  8.2)  P  X
 
 3 σ 3 
 36 n 36 
 P(-0.4  Z  0.4)  0.3108

Population Sampling Standard Normal

Distribution Distribution Distribution 0.1554
??? +0.1554
? ??
? ? Sample Standardize
?? ?
?
-0.4 0.4
μ8 X 7.8
μX  8
8.2 μz  0 Z
Sampling From a Finite Population
 In cases of finite population, a statistical
adjustment can be made to the z-score of sample
mean.
𝑁−𝑛
 Finite correction factor: with 𝑁 is the
𝑁−1
population size and 𝑛 is sample size.
ҧ
𝑥−𝜇
 So, the z-score will be: 𝑍 =
𝜎 𝑁−𝑛
∙ 𝑁−1
𝑛

 Rule of Thumb: When the population is large and the sample is small,
the correction factor does not significantly modify the solution, since it
will be very close to 1.00. This FPFC can be ignore if n is
less than 5% of N.
Example:
A production company’s has 350
hourly employees average 37.6 years
of age, with a standard deviation of
3.8 years. If a random sample of 45
hourly employees is taken, what is
the probability that the sample will
have an average age of less than 40
years?
 Sampling Distributions
of the Proportion

(X  μ) Sampling ps  p
Z Z
σ Distributions p(1 p)
n n

Sampling Sampling
Distributions of Distributions
the of the
Mean Proportion
 Sampling Distribution of 𝑝Ƹ
 Population proportion is equal to the number
of elements in the population belonging to
the category of interest, divided by the total
number of elements in the population:
𝑋
𝑝=
𝑁
 The sample proportion is the number of the
elements in the sample belonging to the
category of interest, divided by the sample
size:
𝑥
𝑝Ƹ =
𝑛
 The Sampling Distribution of the
Sample Proportion, 𝑝Ƹ
 The sample proportion is the percentage of
successes in 𝑛 binomial trials. It is the number
of successes, 𝑋, divided by the number of
trials, 𝑛.
𝑋
Sample proportion: 𝑝Ƹ =
𝑛

 At the sample size, 𝑛, increase, the sampling

distribution of approaches a normal distribution
with the mean 𝑝 and standard deviation
𝑝(1−𝑝)
𝑛
Example:
Suppose 60% of the electrical contractors in a
state use a particular brand of wire. What is the
probability of taking a random sample of 120
from these electrical contractors and finding
that 0.50 or less use that brand of wire?
𝑝 = 0.60, 𝑝Ƹ = 0.50, 𝑛 = 120
0.50 − 0.60
𝑃 𝑝Ƹ ≤ 0.5 = 𝑃 𝑍 ≤
0.60(1 − 0.60)
120
= 𝑃 𝑧 ≤ −2.236
= 0.5 − 0.4875 = 0.0125
 Summary
(continued)

Introduced sampling distributions

Described the sampling distribution of the mean
For normal populations
Using the Central Limit Theorem
Described the sampling distribution of a
proportion
Calculated probabilities using sampling
distributions