In a University of Wisconsin (UW) study about alcohol abuse among students, 100 of the 40,858 members of the student body in Madison were sampled and asked to complete a questionnaire. One question asked was, “On how many days in the past week did you consume at least one alcoholic drink?”
a. Identify the population and the sample.
b. For the 40,858 students at UW, one characteristic of interest was the percentage who would respond “zero” to this question. For the 100 students sampled, suppose 29% gave this response. Does this mean that 29% of the entire population of UW students would make this response? Explain.
c. Is the numerical summary of 29% a sample statistic, or a population parameter?