Chapter 4.1, Problem 15E

To determine

To explain why not to always use line 101 to choose random numbers.

Explanation of Solution

In using random number table3+ repeatedly to choose random samples, you should not always begin at the same place, such as line 101.

In using random number table repeatedly to choose random samples, if you always begin at the same place, then the results would not be random. You would end up using the same sample in every case. That’s why you should not always begin at the same place.

For example, we want to select 50 sample of size 5 from 1000 objects. We label each object from 000 to 999. If we always start from line (say) 106, then we get same sample always:

And this way different samples can’t be selected. So, we should not always begin at the same place in random number table (TABLE D).