At your summer job with a research company you must get a random sample of people from your town to answer a question about spending habits. Which of the following methods is most likely to be random.?
What are the choices?
When selecting a random sample of people from your town to answer a question about spending habits, the most likely method to achieve randomness is using a technique called random sampling. This method ensures that each individual in the population of your town has an equal chance of being selected for the survey.
There are several ways to conduct random sampling, but two common methods are:
1. Simple Random Sampling: In this method, you assign a unique number or identifier to each member of the population and then use a random number generator or a table of random numbers to select your sample. For example, you could assign a number to each citizen in your town, and then use a random number generator to randomly select a certain number of individuals from the list.
2. Systematic Random Sampling: In this method, you first determine a sampling interval, which is calculated by dividing the total population size by the desired sample size. Then, you randomly select a starting point from the population, and at regular intervals, such as every 10th person, you choose the individuals to be included in your sample.
Both of these methods ensure randomness in the selection process and give all individuals in the population an equal opportunity to be included in the sample. Therefore, either of these methods would be the most likely to yield a random sample.