A research scientist wants to know how many times per hour a certain strand of bacteria reproduces. He wants to construct the 85% confidence interval with a maximum error of 0.12 reproductions per hour. Assuming that the mean is 6.8 reproductions and the variance is known to be 4.84, what is the minimum sample size required for the estimate? Round your answer up to the next integer.

First step is to get rid of the square root. remember that a square root is the same as raising to the (1/2) power. see below: multiply exponents per exponent rules to get: remember you subtract exponents from the denominator and add exponents in the numerator so: simplify further: so a is the correct choice. if you don't understand this google exponent rules and it will you understand. look at the image results.

The answer would be 5< 6n