Test Yourself
The figure below shows the population distribution of variable. Determine which statement applies to each of the plots A, B & C below.
True or False
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False
For small samples that are not normally distributed, the mean will not have a normally distributed sampling distribution so we cannot use the normal distribution to estimate confidence intervals.
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False
The sample means and point estimates from the multiple random samples will be normally distributed, not the samples themselves.
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True
This is the theoretical basis that underlies the mathematics behind the normal distribution. It often occurs in nature.
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False
This is one reason but it is not the most important, many variables are not normally distributed and we often deal with non-numerical variables which cannot be normally distributed. In fact, the most important reason why the normal distribution is important is because point estimates from large repeated independent samples tend to follow a normal distribution ie, have a normally distributed sampling distribution.