Question: Overproduction of uric acid in the body can be an indication of cell breakdown. This is may be an advance indication of illness such as gout, leukemia, or lymphoma. Over a period of months, an adult male patient has taken eight blood tests for uric acid. The mean concentration was x = 5.35 mg/dl. The distribution of uric acid in healthy adult males can be assumed to be normal with \(\sigma \) = 1.85 mg/dl.

(a) Find a 95% confidence interval for the population mean concentration of uric acid in this patient’s blood. What is the margin of error?

(b) What conditions are necessary for your calculations?

(c) Give a brief interpretation of your results in the context of this problem.

(d) Sample size. Find the sample size necessary for a 95% confidence level with maximal error of estimate E = 1.10 for the mean concentration of uric acid in this patients blood.