Is this a correct interpretation of a confidence interval: If we were to repeat the procedure of randomly sampling 1,000 UVA hospital emergency room visits, then the population mean wait time would fall between 24 and 36 minutes for 95% of samples
Yes, that is a correct interpretation of a confidence interval. It means that if you were to repeat the process of randomly sampling 1,000 UVA hospital emergency room visits multiple times, then 95% of the time, the average wait time of the population would be within the range of 24 to 36 minutes.
To calculate a confidence interval, you typically need three pieces of information: the sample mean, the sample size, and the level of confidence. In this case, the calculation would have involved taking a random sample of 1,000 UVA hospital emergency room visits and calculating the mean wait time from that sample. Additionally, the confidence level would be set at 95%, which is a common choice.
To interpret a confidence interval, you can state that you are 95% confident that the true population mean falls within the given range. It is important to note that this interpretation is based on the assumption that the sample is representative of the entire population and that the sampling process was conducted randomly.
It is worth mentioning that the confidence interval provides a range of plausible values for the population mean, rather than a single precise estimate.