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A particular brand of tires claims that its deluxe tire averages at least 50,000 miles before it needs to be replaced. From past studies of this tire, the standard deviation is unknown. A survey of owners of that tire design is conducted. From the 28 tires surveyed, the mean lifespan was 46,500 miles with a standard deviation of 9800 miles. Do the data support the claim at the 5% level?

The cost of a daily newspaper varies from city to city. The standard deviation is unknown. A study was done to test the claim that the mean cost of a daily newspaper is $1.00. Twelve costs yield a mean cost of 95¢ with a standard deviation of 18¢. Do the data support the claim at the 1% level?

An article in the San Jose Mercury News stated that students in the California state university system take 4.5 years, on average, to finish their undergraduate degrees. Suppose you believe that the mean time is longer. You conduct a survey of 49 students and obtain a sample mean of 5.1 with a sample standard deviation of 1.2. Do the data support your claim at the 1% level?

  • 3.5
  • 0.0005
  • Decision: Reject null; Conclusion: μ > 4 . 5 size 12{μ>4 "." 5} {}
  • ( 4 . 7553 , 5 . 4447 ) size 12{ \( 4 "." "7553",5 "." "4447" \) } {}

The mean number of sick days an employee takes per year is believed to be about 10. Members of a personnel department do not believe this figure. They randomly survey 8 employees. The number of sick days they took for the past year are as follows: 12; 4; 15; 3; 11; 8; 6; 8. Let x size 12{x} {} = the number of sick days they took for the past year. Should the personnel team believe that the mean number is about 10?

In 1955, Life Magazine reported that the 25 year-old mother of three worked, on average, an 80 hour week. Recently, many groups have been studying whether or not the women's movement has, in fact, resulted in an increase in the average work week for women (combining employment and at-home work). Suppose a study was done to determine if the mean work week has increased. 81 women were surveyed with the following results. The sample mean was 83; the sample standard deviation was 10. Does it appear that the mean work week has increased for women at the 5% level?

  • 2.7
  • 0.0042
  • Decision: Reject Null
  • ( 80 . 789 , 85 . 211 ) size 12{ \( "80" "." "789","85" "." "211" \) } {}

Your statistics instructor claims that 60 percent of the students who take her Elementary Statistics class go through life feeling more enriched. For some reason that she can't quite figure out, most people don't believe her. You decide to check this out on your own. You randomly survey 64 of her past Elementary Statistics students and find that 34 feel more enriched as a result of her class. Now, what do you think?

A Nissan Motor Corporation advertisement read, “The average man’s I.Q. is 107. The average brown trout’s I.Q. is 4. So why can’t man catch brown trout?” Suppose you believe that the brown trout’s mean I.Q. is greater than 4. You catch 12 brown trout. A fish psychologist determines the I.Q.s as follows: 5; 4; 7; 3; 6; 4; 5; 3; 6; 3; 8; 5. Conduct a hypothesis test of your belief.

  • t 11 size 12{t rSub { size 8{"11"} } } {}
  • 1.96
  • 0.0380
  • Decision: Reject null when a = 0 . 05 size 12{a=0 "." "05"} {} ; do not reject null when a = 0 . 01 size 12{a=0 "." "01"} {}
  • ( 3 . 8865 , 5 . 9468 ) size 12{ \( 3 "." "8865",5 "." "9468" \) } {}

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Source:  OpenStax, Collaborative statistics using spreadsheets. OpenStax CNX. Jan 05, 2016 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11521/1.23
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