How long is your arm compared with your hand size? Put your right thumb at your left shoulder bone, stretch your hand open wide, and extend your hand down your arm. Put your thumb at the place where your little finger is, and extend down the arm again. Repeat this a third time. Now your little finger will probably have reached the back of your left hand. If your arm is less than four hand widths, turn your hand sideways and count finger widths until you reach the end of your middle finger.
a) How many hand and finger widths is your arm?
b) Suppose you repeat your measurement 10 times and average your results. What parameter would this average estimate? What is the population?
c) Suppose you now collect arm lengths measured in this way from 9 friends and average these 10 measurements. What is the population now? What parameter would this average estimate?
d) Do you think these 10 arm lengths are likely to be representative of the population of arm lengths in your community? In the country? Why or why not?