A greenhouse owner wants to test the effectiveness of a new fertilizer on African violets. She has 60 violet seedlings that were grown for 8 weeks. She wants to test the new fertilizer on 10 of the plants, and decides to use a simple random sample to select them. Which of the following statements is true?
Answer
A
She needs to put the plants in 6 groups of 10 and randomly select 1 of the groups.
B
She needs to select the 10 biggest plants to test the new fertilizer.
C
She needs to number each plant 1–60 and randomly select 10 plants.
D
She needs to select the 10 smallest plants to test the new fertilizer.
Explanation
A simple random sample gives every plant an equal chance of being selected. Numbering the 60 plants from 1 to 60 and randomly choosing 10 numbers selects 10 plants fairly. Choosing only the biggest or smallest plants would bias the sample, and selecting one group of 10 is not the method described.
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