Discussion – Interpreting Confidence Intervals

This week’s discussion surrounds an example of how one industry used statistics to make important analytics decisions about how it best served its customers:
In the 1960s, data were collected on the weights of people to determine the safe passenger capacity of aircraft. Using a random sample the mean weight was found to be 166.3 lbs.
In recent decades, the mean weight of the population has increased considerably, so we need to update our estimate of that mean.
Recently, a simple random sample of the weights of n = 40 people was collected and found to have a mean of = 172.55 lb.
How could these data be used to impact airline passengers’ experiences? Consider areas such as ticket purchasing, cost, safety, customer service, or any other area that may come to mind.