A new species of sea crab has been discovered, and an experiment conducted to determine whether or not the animal can regulate its temperature. If the animal can maintain a body temperature different from the surroundings, this would be considered evidence of regulating capability. Ten of these sea crabs were exposed to ambient temperatures of 24 degrees Celsius. Their body temperatures were measured with the results below:

24.33, 24.61, 24.67, 24.64, 24.42, 24.97, 25.23, 24.73, 24.90, 24.44

For purposes of this example, assume that it is reasonable to regard these 10 crabs as a random sample from the population of all crabs of this species.

a) Calculate a point estimate of the population mean, μ

b) Construct and interpret a 99% confidence interval for μ.