Hi:
In response to your question and without further information, it sounds as
if you are sampling a proportion. Not knowing anything about that proportion,
and assuming that you wish to do your sampling with 95% confidence, your sample
size would depend upon the margin of error that is acceptable in your
discipline.
If you wish a +/- margin of error of, say, .04 ( that is 4%) then the
sample size would be 601. This is just an example of a basic formula:
n= (z-sq)(pq)/(me-sq)
where z corresponds to the level of confidence. p and q are the percentages
and under the know -nothing assumption they are .5 each, and me is the margin
of error.
Sincerely yours,
Al Ovedovitz
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