We already know how to OPTS502M201921-2

Suresh Venkatraman

handle complications
• After all what can wrong?
Pre Reading for class of 27th November

• The distribution may not be normal

• Sample size may be less than 30

• We may not know the population standard deviation.

Hypotheses Test for Population Mean -

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Complications
 Contingency table OPTS502M201921-2
Suresh Venkatraman

X ~ N? n ≥ 30? σ known ? Use the test statistic

Yes Yes Yes z

Pre Reading for class of 27th November

Yes No Yes z

Yes Yes No t

Yes No No t

No Yes Yes z

No Yes No t but only as an approximation

No No Yes Cannot do hypothesis testing

No No No Cannot do hypothesis testing

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Complications
 Consider an earlier example OPTS502M201921-2
Suresh Venkatraman

with some changes

• Remember the four old men who went to Nepal, in order to
live longer.
Pre Reading for class of 27th November

• Suppose we did not know the population standard deviation

• However since we have a sample, we know the sample
standard deviation.
• Let us say s = 6
• We use the test statistic t = (x̅ -µ)/[s /√n]
• t = (75-69)/[6/√4] = 6/[6/2] = 6/3 = 2

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Complications
 Since sample size n =4 OPTS502M201921-2
Suresh Venkatraman

• We must use the t distribution with (n-1) degrees of

Pre Reading for class of 27th November

freedom i.e. 3 degrees of freedom and find p(t3 ≥ 2)

• Unlike the z table, the t table does not allow us to find
such probabilities.
• However we know from the table that p(t3 ≥ 4.541) = 0.01
• Since we know the shape of the t distribution, we know
that p(t3 ≥ 2) > p(t3 ≥ 4.541)
• Therefore p > alpha, and we retain null hypothesis.
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Complications
 If we had a 2 tail test OPTS502M201921-2
Suresh Venkatraman

• We would use a slightly different procedure.

• Remember the first example X̅ = 71, µ = 67, n =25, alpha 5%
Pre Reading for class of 27th November

• If we did not know σ, and we know s = 9

• For a 2 tail test, we split the alpha as 2.5% on each side.
• Test statistic = (71-67)/[9/√25]=4/[9/5]=2.22
• From table we get p(t24 ≥ 2.064) = 0.025 ( or 2.5%)
• p(t24 ≥ 2.064) > p(t24 ≥ 2.22)
• Since half of alpha is more than half of p
• Alpha> p or p < alpha – Hence reject the null hypothesis.
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Complications