The University of the South Pacific

Serving the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

SCHOOL OF COMPUTING, INFORMATION & MATHEMATICAL

SCIENCES

ST130: BASIC STATISTICS

FINAL EXAMINATION SOLUTION – SEMESTER 1, 2013

(Online and Face-to-Face Modes)
 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

SECTION A: MULTIPLE CHOICE (20 MARKS)

This section consists of 20 multiple choice questions worth 1 mark each. Circle the letter
corresponding to the best answer in the Multiple Choice answer sheet provided.

1. If you classified a lecturer’s performance as “Excellent”, “Good”, “Satisfactory” and “Poor”, this
would be an example of which level of measurement?
(A) Nominal (B) Ratio (C) Ordinal (D) Interval

2. The number of times per week a working mother does exercise is an example of which type of
variable?
(A) a discrete variable (B) a continuous variable
(C) a qualitative variable (D) none of the above

3. A Math’s tutor at USP is interested in the mean number of days an ST130 student is absent from
tutorial classes. The tutor takes her sample by gathering data on 5 randomly selected students
from ST130 course. The type of sampling she used is:
(A) Cluster sampling (B) Stratified sampling
(C) Simple Random sampling (D) Systematic sampling

4. Which of the following is an appropriate measure of central tendency for nominal data?
(A) Mean. (B) Median. (C) Mode. (D) Midrange.

5. Let X be the number of days per week that 100 working mothers in Suva do a 30 minute exercise
program.
X Number of Mothers
0 3
1 12
2 33
3 28
4 11
5 9
6 4
The 80th percentile is:
(A) 5 (B) 80 (C) 3 (D) 4

6. If a gambler rolls two dice and gets a sum of 10, he wins $10, and if he gets a sum of three, he
wins $20. The cost to play the game is $5. What is the expected gain of this game?
(A) $3.06 (B) -$2.78 (C) -$3.06 (D) $2.78

7. A child gets 22 heads out of 30 tosses of a coin. This would be an example of which type of
probability?
(A) subjective probability (B) relative frequency
(C) classical probability (D) a priori probability

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

8. A single card is drawn from a deck. Find the probability that it is a 6 or a heart.
(A) 4/52 (B) 13/52 (C) 16/52 (D) 17/52

9. In how many ways can a student form imaginary or real words from the word “SINGLE” by
rearranging the letters?
(A) 5040 (B) 7 (C) 42 (D) 720

10. In a second grade class containing 15 girls and 10 boys, 2 students are selected at random to give
out the math papers. What is the probability that the second student chosen is a boy, given that
the first one was a girl?
(A) 10/24 (B) 10/25 (C) 15/25 D) 15/24

11. Previously it was reported that children in Suva between the ages of 2 and 5 watch an average of
25hrs of television per week. Assume the variable is normally distributed and the standard
deviation is 3hrs. If 20 children between the ages of 2 and 5 are randomly selected, what is the
probability that the mean number of hours they watch television will be greater than 26.3hrs?
(A) 0.47 (B) 0.03 (C) 25 (D) 1.94

12. An agriculture researcher in Fiji samples 25 mandarin trees to study the average number of fruits
per tree. If the sample mean is 825 with the standard deviation of 150. The 98% confidence
interval for the mean number of mandarin fruits per tree for all trees are:
 150   150 
(A) 825  2.58   (B) 825  2.492  
 25   25 
 150   150 
(C) 825  2.33   (D) 825  2.485  
 25   25 

13. For the conjecture "The average age of students in this class is at least 20", the alternative
hypothesis is:
(A) The average age of students in this class is at least 20
(B) The average age of students in this class is 20
(C) The average age of students in this class is more than 20
(D) The average age of students in this class is less than 20

14. When a new drug is created, the pharmaceutical company must subject it to testing before
receiving the necessary permission from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market the
drug. Suppose the null hypothesis is “the drug is unsafe.” What is the Type II Error?
(A) To conclude the drug is safe when in, fact, it is unsafe
(B) To conclude the drug is safe when, in fact, it is safe.
(C) To conclude the drug is unsafe when, in fact, it is safe.
(D) To conclude the drug is unsafe when, in fact, it is unsafe

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

15. Mr Takala, Director of Marketing Research at the Rewa Supermarket, is evaluating consumer
acceptance of a new toothpaste package. His staffs report that 17% of a random sample of 200
Rewa households prefers the new package to all other package designs. If Mr Takala concludes
that 17% of all households prefer the new package, he is using a _______.
(A) a point estimate (B) a statistical parameter
(C) a range estimate (D) an interval estimate

16. In regression, the variable being predicted is usually referred to as the

(A) dependent variable (B) independent variable
(C) coefficient of correlation (D) coefficient of determination

17. The following scatter plot indicates

(A) strong positive correlation (B) no correlation

(C) positive correlation (D) negative correlation

18. A chi-square goodness-of-fit test is being used to determine if the observed frequencies from
seven categories are significantly different from the expected frequencies from the seven
categories. No parameters are estimated from the data. Using  = 0.05, the degrees of freedom for
this test are
(A) 7 (B) 6 (C) 5 (D) 0

19. Determining the table value for the F-distribution is different from finding values in the t-
distribution tables because the F-table requires _____ value/s for degrees of freedom.
(A) one (B) two (C) three (D) more than three

20. If a researcher wants to conduct a test about the differences in the means for more than two
independent populations, she can use _______.
(A) the related samples t-test (B) a confidence interval
(C) analysis of variance (D) the multiple population t-test

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

SECTION B: SHORT ANSWERS (80 MARKS)

This section consists of 8 short answer questions worth 10 marks each. Write your answers in the
answer booklet provided. Show all necessary working as partial marks will be awarded to partially
correct answers.

Question 1 Start on a new page [4+2+4 = 10 marks]

The amount of protein (in grams) for a variety of fast food burgers in Suva is reported here.

32 47 51 41 46 30 46 38 34 34 52 48 48 38 43
41 21 24 25 29 33 45 51 32 32 27 23 23 34 35

(A) Construct a grouped frequency distribution table with classes 20-26, 27-33, 34-40, 41-47, and
48-54.
(B) Calculate the cumulative frequency of each class.

cum
LCL UCL LCB UCB tally freq freq
20 26 19.5 26.5 |||| 5 5
27 33 26.5 33.5 |||| || 7 12
34 40 33.5 40.5 |||| | 6 18
41 47 40.5 47.5 |||| | 7 25
48 54 47.5 54.5 |||| 5 30

(C) Construct an ogive, and use it to estimate the median for the data.

Ogive
35
30
25
Cum freq

20
15
10
5
0
19.5 26.5 33.5 37 40.5 47.5 54.5
Class Boundary

The median is 37

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

Question 2 Start on a new page [4+6 = 10 marks]

(A) The Nabua car company is testing 30 of its automobile for fuel efficiency (in miles per gallon).
The following table is obtained.

Fuel Efficiency f
7.5-12.5 3
12.5-17.5 5
17.5-22.5 15
22.5-27.5 5
27.5-32.5 2

Calculate the standard deviation.

LCB UCB f Xm fXm f(Xm.Xm)

7.5 12.5 3 10 30 300
12.5 17.5 5 15 75 1125
17.5 22.5 15 20 300 6000
22.5 27.5 5 25 125 3125
27.5 32.5 2 30 60 1800

 5902 
12350  
 f . X    f .X  
2
2
m /n  30 
S 2
 m
  25.75
n 1 29
S  25.75  5.07

(B) A teacher gives a 50-point test to 8 students. The scores are shown here.
15 13 6 5 12 50 22 18
(i) Give an outlier(s) if there are any in this set of data?
Q3  20, Q2  14, Q1  9
IQR 1.5  (20  9)1.5  16.5
The interval is: [7.5,36.5]
50 is outside the interval therefore it is an outlier.
(ii) Construct a box-plot for the data and comment on the shape of the distribution.

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

BoxPlot

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
score

Skewed to the right.

[3+3=6 marks]
Question 3 Start on a new page [2+2+3+3 = 10 marks]

(A) The following data are a result of a survey conducted by a marketing company to determine
wine preferences.

Red Wine White Wine

Male 512 415
Female 420 680

If a respondent is selected at random, what is the probability that this person is a female given
that she prefers white wine?

Red White
Wine Wine Total
Male 512 415 927
Female 420 680 1100
Total 932 1095 2027

P( F  W ) 680
P( F | W )    0.62
P(W ) 1095

(B) A flashlight has 6 batteries, 2 of which are defective. If 2 are selected at random without
replacement, find the probability at least one is defective.
 2C 4C 
P(at least 1 def )  1  P(0)  1   60 2   1  0.4  0.6
 C2 

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

(C) A fair coin is tossed 5 times. Find the probability that at least 4 heads appear.

P  atleast 4 heads   P(4 heads)  P(5 heads)

C4 5 C5
 5

32 32
5 1 6
  
32 32 32

(D) What is the probability of four people Andy, Betty, Cindy, and Doug, sit in a row at the opera if
Andy and Betty must sit together?
3!  2
 0.5
4!

Question 4 Start on a new page [3+4+3 = 10 marks]

(A) The number of students using the SMART room in USP per day is found in the distribution
below. Find the variance for this distribution.

X 6 8 10 12 14
P(X) 0.15 0.3 0.35 0.1 0.1

   X P( X )  6(0.15)  8  0.3  10  0.35   12  0.1  14  0.1  9.4

 2  E ( X )   2  62 (0.15)  82  0.3  102  0.35   122  0.1  142  0.1   9.42  5.24

(B) The heights of 100 students are normally distributed with a mean of 172cm. What is the
standard deviation of the heights given that the probability of a height above 180cm is 0.25?
180  172
P( X  180)  0.25  P( Z  )  0.25

180  172
But from the table we found that P (0  Z   0.67)  0.25.

180  172
 0.67     11.94


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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

(C) A researcher in Fiji wishes to estimate within $300 the true average amount of money Fiji
spends on road repair each year. The standard deviation is known to be $900. If she wants to be
90% confident, how large a sample is necessary?

For 90% confidence interval, z 2  1.65. Here   900, E  300, hence

2
 (1.65)(900) 
n 
 300 
 24.5.

So the minimum sample size should be 25 to estimate the population mean with 90%
confidence.

Question 5 Start on a new page [5+5 = 10 marks]

(A) A job placement director claims that the average starting salary for nurses is $24,000. A sample
of 10 nurses has a mean of $23,450 and a standard deviation of $400. Is there enough evidence
to reject the director’s claim at   0.05 ?

H 0 :   24000(claim) H1 :   24000

s  400 
  X  t 2  23450  2.262  
n  10 
23164    23736
Since 24000 is not in the interval, we do reject H 0 .
There is enough evidence to reject the director's claim.

(B) A biologist suspected that males age 20–24 have a higher mean systolic blood pressure than
females in the same age group. Independent random samples of males and females were
selected from a research institute. The data are as follows:

Sample size Sample mean Standard deviation

Males n1 = 31 x1 = 125 s1 = 13.9
Females n2 = 41 x2 = 117 s2 = 12.1

At a 1% level of significance, is there sufficient evidence to justify the biologist suspicions?

Step 1: Hypothesis: H0 : 1  2 H1 : 1  2 (claim)

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

Step 2: Critical value: Since   001 and the test is right–tailed, using the z-distribution table
we get critical value as z  2.33
Step 3: Test value:

z
125  117   0
 2.555.
13.92  12.12
31 41
Step 4: Make a decision: Since the test value z =2.56, falls in critical region, we reject null
hypothesis. There is enough evidence to support the claim that males age 20–24 have a
higher mean systolic blood pressure than females in the same age group.

Question 6 Start on a new page [2+4 +4 = 10 marks]

An educator wishes to know whether there is any relationship between the number of absences for a
student in her class and the student’s final grade. The educator selects 6 samples randomly and the
table shows the result.

No. of absences, x 6 2 15 9 12 5 8
Final exam mark, y 82 86 43 74 58 90 78

(A) Compute the value of the correlation coefficient.

n  6,  x  48,  y  433,  xy  3121,  x 2  515,  y 2  32909

6  3121   49  433
r  0.95.
6  515    49 2  6  32909    4332 
  
(B) Test the significance of the correlation coefficient at   0.05.
H0 : p  0 H1 : p  0
C.V :   0.05, d . f  4, t  2.776
n2 62
TestValue : t  r  0.95  6.08
1 r 1   0.95 
2 2

Reject H 0 and claim that there is a correlation between X and Y .

(C) Determine the regression line equation, and predict y when the number of absence, x is 16.

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

The regression line y '  a  bx, where

a
 433 515    49  3121  101.69;
6  515    49 
2

6  3121   49  433
b  3.62.
6  515    49 
2

So y '  101.69  3.62 x.

y '(16)  101.69  3.62(16)  43.77  44

Question 7 Start on a new page [5+5 = 10 marks]

(A) A researcher read that drown-related deaths for people aged 1 to 18 was distributed as follows:
74% were accidental, 16% were homicides, and 10% were suicides. In her district, there were
68 accidental deaths, 27 homicides, and 5 suicides during the past year. At α = 0.10, test the
claim that the percentages are equal.

Hypothesis:
H 0 : There is no difference between experimental and theoretical results (i.e. experimental
result supports the theory that drown-related deaths for people aged 1 to 18 was
distributed as follows: 74% were accidental, 16% were homicides, and 10% were
suicides.).
H1 : The experimental result does not support the theory.

Critical Value:
The critical value using d . f .  2 and   0.10 is 0.1
2
 4.605

Test value:

(O  E )2
The test value is  2   = 10.549
E

Conclusion:
Since the test value falls in the rejection region, we do reject H 0 . Hence, we may conclude
that the experimental results do not support the theory.

(B) A random sample of 300 adults was selected and they were asked if they favor school teachers
punishing students for violence and lack of discipline. Does the sample provide sufficient
information to conclude that the two attributes, gender and opinions of adults, are dependent?
Use a 1% significance level.

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

In Favor Against No Opinion Total

(F) (A) (N)
Men (M) 93 70 12 175
Women (W) 87 32 6 125
Total 180 102 18 300

Hypothesis:
H 0 : There is no relation between the gender and opinion. (i.e. gender has no effect on the
opinion).
H1 : Gender has an effect on the opinion.

Critical Value:
Degrees of freedom:   (r  1)(c  1) = (2 – 1)(3 – 1) = 2.
The critical value for 2 d.f. at 1% level of significance is 0.01
2
 9.21

Test Value:
(O  E )2
The test value is  2    8.252.
E
Conclusion:
Since the test value falls in the non-critical region, H 0 is not rejected at 1% level of
significance. Hence, we may conclude that the two are independent.

Question 8 Start on a new page [10 marks]

A research organization tested microwave ovens. At   0.05, is there a significant difference in the
average prices of the three types of oven?

Watts
1000 900 800
270 240 180
245 135 155
190 160 200
215 230 120
250 250 140
230 200 180
200 140
210 130

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

A computer printout for this exercise is shown below. Use a P-value method and the information in
the printout to test the claim. (Clearly state the hypothesis, test value, P-value, and the conclusion for
this test.)

Descriptive Statistics
Mean n Std. Dev
233.3 6 28.23 Group 1
203.1 8 39.36 Group 2
155.6 8 28.21 Group 3
194.1 22 44.79 Total

ANOVA table
Source SS df MS F p-value
Treatment 21,729.73 2 10,864.867 10.12 .0010
Error 20,402.08 19 1,073.794
Total 42,131.82 21

Hypothesis:
H 0 : 1  2  3 :
H1 : At least one mean is different from the others.

Test Value:
The test value is F  10.12 from ANOVA table.

P- Value:
P-value = 0.0010

Conclusion:
Since p   , H 0 is rejected at 5% level of significance. Hence, we may conclude that there
is a significant difference in the average prices of the 3 types of oven.

   END OF EXAM   

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 FINAL EXAMINATION SEMESTER 1, 2013

FORMULAE

 f .X  f . X    f .X 
2
2
m /n
1. X m
and S2  m
.
n n 1
2. P( A or B) P( A)  P( B)  P( A and B).
P( A and B)
3. P( B A)  .
P( A)
n
4. P ( X )    p X q n  X .
X
X 
5. z  .
/ n
pˆ  p
6. z  .
pq / n

7. z 
X 1  X 2    1   2 
.
 12  22

n1 n2
n   xy     x   y 
8. r  .
 n  x 2    x 2   n  y 2    y 2 
       
n2
9. t  r .
1 r2
10. The regression line y '  a  bx, where

a
  y    x     x   xy  ;
2

b
n   xy     x   y 
.
n  x    x n  x    x
2 2 2 2

(O  E )
 
2
2
11. .
E

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