On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 21:00:54 GMT, doubter
wrote:

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 13:42:43 -0600, frank wrote:

Technically I agree with you but that goes for any survey since I
don't know one that surveys the entire population including the United
States census bureau.

No survey needs to contact the entire universe to provide a valid sample.
In fact the numbers required to get a result with a 5% confidence level
are very small.

What is important is that the sample be representative of the makeup of
the universe being sampled. If someone declines to participate, they
would be replaced by a member of the subset that the original person
represented.


Sounds great but no survey can really do this unless they survey all.
How do you decide that it represents the universe being sampled unless
you survey the universe first? Inotherwords, what would be your basis
to determine the survey is accurate?