The 2008 General Social Survey asked, “What do you think is the ideal number of children for a family to have?” The 678 females who responded had a median of 2, mean of 3.22, and standard deviation of 1.99. Determine whether the following statements are true or false, and explain your reasoning. (a) 99% the women in the samples thought that the ideal number of children is between 3.02 and 3.42. (b) If a new sample was taken, we are 99% confident that the sample mean of the new sample would lie between 3.02 and 3.42. (c) The margin of error of the 99% confidence interval (3.02, 3.42) is 0.2.

Definition Definition Middle value of a data set. The median divides a data set into two halves, and it also called the 50th percentile. The median is much less affected by outliers and skewed data than the mean. If the number of elements in a dataset is odd, then the middlemost element of the data arranged in ascending or descending order is the median. If the number of elements in the dataset is even, the average of the two central elements of the arranged data is the median of the set. For example, if a dataset has five items—12, 13, 21, 27, 31—the median is the third item in ascending order, or 21. If a dataset has six items—12, 13, 21, 27, 31, 33—the median is the average of the third (21) and fourth (27) items. It is calculated as follows: (21 + 27) / 2 = 24.