sample and population

Question

Does the following represent a sample or a population?

names of the players on the golf team 

Answer 1

Hi Sarah,

Step One: Define our terms

Population: A population includes ALL of the elements from a set of data.
Sample: A sample consists of one or more observations from the population.

Step Two: Analyse our given example

Our example "names of the players on the golf team" is a population because the set includes ALL of the names of the players on the team.

∴Since all names of the players is the entire population (all elements from the set), we conclude that this is an example of a population. 

Best, 

Starlyte

Answer 2

The "names of the players on the golf team" usually means "ALL the names of the players on the golf team," not just the starting players (without mentioning substitutes) or the best players, or even just three players that we selected at random for a newspaper interview.  So, it is a population.  It can be described in SET NOTATION with each of the values enumerated (that is, listed); we will know that this is every name (the entire population).

 

That newspaper interview used a sample, right?