A newspaper headline describing a poll of registered voters taken two weeks before a recent election read "Ringel leads with 52%." The accompanying article describing the poll stated that the margin of error was 2% with 95% confidence. a) Explain in plain language to someone who knows no statistics what "95% confidence" means. b) The poll shows Ringel leading. But the newspaper article said that the election was too close to call. Explain why.

Question

Roger George

Mathematics

8 April, 22:04

A newspaper headline describing a poll of registered voters taken two weeks before a recent election read "Ringel leads with 52%." The accompanying article describing the poll stated that the margin of error was 2% with 95% confidence. a) Explain in plain language to someone who knows no statistics what "95% confidence" means. b) The poll shows Ringel leading. But the newspaper article said that the election was too close to call. Explain why.

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Waylon Mccarthy · Answer 1

A) The 95% confidence mean that out of 100 people, there are 95 people who voted for Ringel in the poll.

b) The newspaper would say that the results were too close to call because of the margin of error of 2% which would mean that the Ringel could have 50% to 54% and 50% is not definitive