A reporter for the local news station wants to know how the citizens of the area feel about the current gas prices. The reporter decides to gather this information by conducting a survey at the local golf course.Part ADetermine if the chosen sample is random or not random for the population and give and explanation why.Part BCome up with two different ways a random sample could be collected for this population.

The reporter wants to get a random (or representative) sample of the citizens in the area. That means that he wants the people he selects to reflect those that live in the area. If half the people in the area are men, then we expect more or less half of those he asks to be men, for example.

PART A
While it is not entirely clear if the members of the golf club are representative of those in the area (one might be in an area where most folks golf), it is probably unlikely. Most people do not golf and (I am being very stereotypical here) most golfers are men. So the people he asks might be more likely to be men than those in the area, as an example.

PART B
To get a random sample, the reporter could instead knock on the door of 3 houses on every block in the area and ask the inhabitants of these houses about the gas prices. We, of course, don't know how big the area is or how feasible it is to knock on 3 doors per block, but here we are likely to get a random sample.

Another method could be to take a list of residents from the area and contact every 5th name on the list. In this way the people selected are random and more likely to be representative of those in the area.