Question: Every 10 years, the United States takes a census. The census tries to count every resident. There are two forms, known as the "short form," answered by most people, and the "long form," slogged through by about one in six or seven households chosen at random. According to the Census Bureau (www.census.gov),". each estimate based on the long form responses has an associated confidence interval."
Suppose the Census Bureau decided to report on areas from which only 50 long forms were completed. What effect would that have on a 95% confidence interval for, say, the mean cost of housing? Specifically, which values used in the formula for the margin of error would change? Which would change a lot and which would change only slightly?