As part of a study on facility needs, the administrators of a university wanted to estimate the percent of students who use the exercise facilities on a regular basis. From the 34,000 students who attend the university, a random sample of 370 male students and 400 female students was selected. Of the 770 students selected, 493 students indicated that they use the exercise facilities on a regular basis. What are the population and the sample of the study? A. The population is the 770 students who were selected, and the sample is whether each student in the survey uses the exercise facility on a regular basis. B. The population is the 34,000 students who attend the university, and the sample is whether each student in the survey is male or female. C. The population is the 34,000 students who attend the university, and the sample is the 770 students who were selected. D. The population is the 34,000 students who attend the university, and the sample is the 493 students who indicated that they use the exercise facilities on a regular basis. E. The population is the 770 students who were selected, and the sample is the 493 students who indicated that they use the exercise facilities on a regular basis.

C. The population is the 34,000 students who attend the university, and the sample is the 770 students who were selected.

Extra: In statistics, the term "population" refers to the entire group that you want to draw conclusions about, while a "sample" is a subset of the population that is used to represent the entire group. In this study, the population is indeed the entire student body of the university, which is given as 34,000 students. This is the group that the administrators want to understand better, specifically in terms of how many students use the exercise facilities on a regular basis.

The sample, on the other hand, is the smaller group of students from whom data was actually collected. In this case, a sample of 770 students (370 male and 400 female) was selected randomly. They are a representative subset of the population that is being used to estimate the behavior of the entire population. The information obtained from the sample (i.e., the fact that 493 students indicated that they use the exercise facilities regularly) will be used to make inferences about the usage habits of all 34,000 students. The options stating that the population is the sample or that the population includes only the respondents who use the facilities are incorrect interpretations of these statistical concepts.