The number of calories in fruit smoothies varies from brand to brand. The population distribution of calories is strongly skewed to the right. The central limit theorem says that:___________
a. the average calorie count of a large number of fruit smoothie brands has a sampling distribution that is exactly Normal.
b. the average calorie count of a large number of fruit smoothie brands has a sampling distribution that is close to Normal.
c. as the number of brands of fruit smoothies increases, their average calorie count gets ever closer to the mean μ for all fruit smoothies of this type.
d. the average amount of calories of a large number of fruit smoothie brands has a sampling distribution with the same shape (strongly skewed) as the population distribution.
e. the average calorie count of a large number of fruit smoothie brands has a sampling distribution with a similar shape but not as extreme (skewed, but not as strongly) as the population distribution.

The Central Limit Theorem estabilishes that, for a normally distributed random variable X, with mean [tex]\mu[/tex] and standard deviation [tex]\sigma[/tex], the sampling distribution of the sample means with size n can be approximated to a normal distribution with mean [tex]\mu[/tex] and standard deviation [tex]s = \frac{\sigma}{\sqrt{n}}[/tex].

For a skewed variable, the Central Limit Theorem can also be applied, as long as n is at least 30.

Applying to this question:

The distribution of the number of calories in fruit smoothies is strongly skewed to the right. However, in a sample with a large number of fruit smoothies, the sampling distribution will be approximately normal, so the correct answer is given by option B.