Hypothesis Testing – Extra Practice Problems

1. The past record shows that the average grade of students taking Statistics is 65. A
new teaching method is introduced and a random sample of n = 64 is selected to
test whether the new method has improved the average grade of students. The
sample mean is 69 and standard deviation is 16. Did the new teaching method
improve the average grade of the students? Use α = 0.05. Find P-value.

2. The content of a bottle of lotion, as written on the bottle, is 100cc. To test its
correctness a random sample of 100 is selected and found that the mean is 99cc
and the standard deviation is 4cc. Is there any significant difference between the
sample value of 99cc and the claimed value of 100cc? Use α = 0.05.

3. The average annual income in a small town is $19,780. A sample of 150

individuals in a nearby city resulted in a sample mean income of $21,040.
Assuming a sample standard deviation of $6,000, does this data support the
conclusion that the mean annual income in the nearby city is greater than the
mean annual income in this town? Use a 0.05 level of significance. What is the
P-value? What is your conclusion?

4. A new diet and exercise program claims that participants will lose on average at
least 8 pounds during the first week of the program. A random sample of 40
people participating in the program showed a sample mean weight loss of 7
pounds. The sample standard deviation was 3.2 pounds.

(a) What is your conclusion about the claim made by the diet program at 5%
significance level?
(b) What is the P-value?

5. Are the Apgar scores greater at 5 minutes than the scores are at 1 minute? A
hospital reported that the mean Apgar score after 1 minute was 7.9. A sample of
100 births was taken for the 5 minute Apgar score that resulted in a mean of 9
with a standard deviation of 1.5. Is there sufficient evidence to support the claim
that the Apgar scores at 5 minutes are greater than the Apgar scores at 1 minute?
(the child’s health improves). Use α = 1%
6 The researchers obtained the following body temperatures of 93 healthy humans.

98.8 97.6 98.0 98.8 98.8 98.0 97.6 98.6 98.6

98.2 98.0 98.8 97.0 98.0 98.0 97.2 98.2 98.1
98.5 98.5 98.2 97.0 98.0 99.0 97.3 97.3 98.1
97.6 99.0 97.8 97.4 98.0 97.4 98.0 98.6 98.6
98.4 97.0 98.4 99.4 98.0 99.0 97.8 98.2 99.2
98.2 97.7 99.0 98.1 98.8 98.2 98.5 97.2 98.5
98.7 98.3 99.2 98.0 98.6 98.8 99.1 97.2 97.6
98.6 98.8 97.9 97.8 99.3 98.6 98.7 99.3 97.8
98.3 97.7 98.4 98.4 97.1 97.7 98.6 97.4 96.7
98.2 98.4 96.9 97.4 97.0 98.6 98.4 97.4 96.8
98.0 97.4 98.2

At the 1% significance level, does the data provide sufficient evidence to

conclude that the mean body temperature of healthy humans differs from 98.6°F?
Assume that σ = 0.63°F. Use α = 1% ( x = 98.124 ° F)

7 A filling machine at a canning factory is intended to fill 30 ounces of fruit juice in

each can. A sample of n = 9 is taken and the sample mean is 30.04 ounces. The
estimated standard deviation is 0.08 ounces. Is the machine overfilling? Use α =
5%

8. An economist found the mean and standard deviation of the price of homes in 10
major cities (in thousands of dollars) were 148.60 and 52.97, respectively.

(a) Suppose that the mean price of homes in non-major cities (i.e. country or
suburbs) is 96.00. What hypotheses would you test to determine whether the
mean price of homes in major cities differs from 96.00?
(b) Assuming that the price of homes is normally distributed, use a significance
level of 0.01 to test the hypothesis in part (a).
9. Previous research indicates that children born by diabetic mothers may suffer
from obesity, high blood pressure, and glucose intolerance. Independent samples
of adolescent offspring of diabetic mothers (ODM) and nondiabetic mothers
(ONM) were taken and evaluated for potential differences in vital measurements,
including blood pressure and glucose tolerance. The following summary statistics
are for the systolic blood pressures, in mm Hg, of the 99 ODM participants and
the 80 ONM participants.

ODM ONM
x1 = 118 x 2 = 110
s1 = 12.04 s 2 = 11.25
n 1 = 99 n 2 = 80

At the 1% significance level, does the data provide sufficient evidence to

conclude that the mean systolic blood pressure of ODM children exceeds that of
the ONM children?

10.
Translate each of the following research questions into appropriate Ho and Ha.
a) Census Bureau data show that the mean household income in the area
served by a shopping mall is $72,500 per year. A market research firm questions
shoppers at the mall to find out whether the mean household income of mall
shoppers is higher than that of the general population.
b) Last year, your company’s service technicians took an average of 1.8
hours to respond to trouble calls from business customers who had purchased
service contracts. Do this year’s data show a different average response time?

11.
To determine whether the mean nicotine content of a brand of cigarettes is greater
than the advertised value of 1.4 milligrams, a health advocacy group tests:
Ho: µ ≤ 1.4 Ha: µ > 1.4
The calculated value of the test statistic is z = 1.75.
a. Is the result significant at the 5% level?
b. Is the result significant at the 1% level?

12.
An agronomist examines the cellulose content of a variety of alfalfa hay. Suppose
that the cellulose content in the population has standard deviation of 8 milligrams
per gram (mg/g). A sample of 16 cuttings has mean cellulose content of 140
mg/g.

a. What assumptions do you need to make?

b. Give a 95% confidence interval for the mean cellulose content in the
population.
 c. A previous study claimed that the mean cellulose content was µ = 135
mg/g, but the agronomist believes that the mean is higher than that figure. State
Ho and Ha and carry out a significance test to see if the new data support this
belief.

Two-sample Hypothesis Testing

13. Independent random samples of students at two universities provided the results
shown in the table below, which includes the mean grade point averages and
standard deviations.

(a) What is the point estimate of the difference between the means of the two
populations?
(b) Develop a 90% confidence interval for the difference between the two
population means.
(c) Develop a 95% confidence interval for the difference between the two
population means.

Northern University Southern University

n1 = 46 n2 = 33
x1 = 3.02 x 2 = 2.72
s1 = 0.38 s2 = 0.45

14. Starting annual salaries for individuals with master's and bachelor's degrees in
statistics were collected in two independent random samples. Use the data shown
in the table below to develop a 90% confidence interval estimate of the increase in
starting salary that can be expected upon completion of the master's degree.

Master’s Degree Bachelor’s Degree

n1 = 60 n2 = 80
x1 = $43,000 x 2 = $41,000
s1 = $2,500 s2 = $2,000

15. Who does better on a standard test? The Educational Testing Service conducted a
study to investigate differences between the scores of males and females on the
Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The study identified a random sample of 562
females and 852 males who had achieved the same high score on the mathematics
portion of the test. That is, both the females and males were viewed as having
similar high abilities in mathematics. The SAT verbal scores for the two samples
are summarized in the table below. Do the data support the conclusion that given
a population of females and a population of males with similar high mathematical
abilities, the females will have a significantly higher verbal ability? Test at a 0.02
level of significance. What is your conclusion? Find a 95% confidence interval
for µ1-µ2, the difference between population means.
 Females Males
x1 = 547 x 2 = 525
s1 = 83 s2 = 83

16. How do college graduates do in the job market? Starting salary data for college
graduates is reported by the College Placement Council for 1992. Annual salaries
in thousands of dollars for a sample of accounting majors and a sample of finance
majors are shown in table below.

Accounting Finance
28.8 26.3
25.3 23.6
26.2 25.0
27.9 23.0
27.0 27.9
26.2 24.5
28.1 29.0
24.7 27.4
25.2 23.5
29.2 26.9
29.7 26.2
29.3 24.0

(a) Use a 0.05 level of significance to test the hypothesis that there is no
difference between the mean annual starting salary for accounting majors and
the mean annual starting salary for finance majors. What is your conclusion?
(b) Provide the point estimate and the 95% confidence interval for the difference
between the mean starting salaries for the two majors.

17. Samples of final examination scores for two statistics classes with different
instructors provided the results shown in the table below. With α = 0.05, test
whether these data are sufficient to conclude that the mean grades differ for the
two classes.

Instructor A Instructor B
N1 = 12 n2 = 15
x1 = 72 x 2 = 78
s1 = 8 s2 = 10

18. Have word-processing systems improved efficiencies of the secretarial staff?

Shown below are typing rates in words per minute for 7 secretaries who
previously used electronic typewriters and who are now using computer-based
word processors. Test at the 0.05 level of significance to see if there has been an
increase in the mean typing rate due to the use of word-processing system.
Secretary Electronic Typewriter Word Processor
1 72 75
2 68 66
3 55 60
4 58 64
5 52 55
6 55 57
7 64 64