normal distribution - Confidence interval given the population mean and standard deviation - Cross Validated
How would you know the population standard deviation but not the population mean?
Hello! I need help with the Ti-84 calculator. “Construct a 99% confidence interval for the population mean, μ. Assume the population has a normal distribution. A group of 19 randomly selected students has a mean age of 22.4 years with a standard deviation of 3.8 years.” Here are my attempts so far:
Do confidence intervals get wider far away from the population mean?
How do you calculate a confidence interval?
What is the difference between a confidence interval and a confidence level?
How do I calculate a confidence interval if my data are not normally distributed?
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@Abso, what the question is describing is not a 90% confidence interval, it is a 90% margin of error around a particular hypothesis. It is unfortunate that the question uses this term incorrectly. As you and Alexis have correctly stated, the confidence interval is for making inference on an unknown mean. The confidence interval is a set of hypotheses for which the observed data are within a 90% margin of error.
If you have the population mean, and the population variance, you would not calculate a confidence interval for the mean of a normal distribution.
Here's why: Confidence intervals are one form of statistical inference. The aim of statistical inference is to learn something about some statistical quantity or quantities in a target population, given that what what we have to learn from are data and statistical quantities derived with them from a sample.* Loosely, confidence intervals are intended to provide a plausible range of estimates of the statistical quantity in the target population, where this range gets wider as our level of confidence increases (e.g., ceteris paribus a 99%CI is wider than a 90% CI). If we already know the statistical quantity in the population, we have no need to try and infer it. Finally, everything about the normal distribution is conveyed through it's two parameters, the population mean $\mu$ and the population standard deviation $\sigma$ (though some prefer to think of the population variance, $\sigma^{2}$ as the parameter): if you know these quantities in advance, you do not need to guess them, as @Dave said.
* I am intentionally leaving out additional things we have to work with like modeling assumptions, prior beliefs, and so forth.