In a USA Today survey of 456 subjects, 269 agreed that honesty is always the best policy. Assume that we plan to use the survey results to estimate the proportion of the population who believe that honesty is always the best policy.
a. Is the sample proportion of 269/456 a statistic or a parameter?
b. Are frequency counts such as 269 categorical data or quantitative data?
c. Are frequency counts such as 269 discrete or continuous?
d. What does it mean for a sample, such as the 456 surveyed subjects, to be a simple random sample?
e. The USA Today survey was conducted as follows: A question was posted on the USA Today web site and Internet users could choose to respond. In statistics, is this a valid sampling plan?