SECTION - IV

ADVANCED STATISTICS – TEST QUESTIONS

4.1. To determine a statistical tolerance limit from a sample with a normal distribution, which of the
following must be specified?

a. Mean and standard deviation

b. Mean, standard deviation, and sample size
c. Sample mean and standard deviation, sample size, tolerance level and confidence level
d. Sample mean and standard deviation, sample size, tolerance level, confidence level and
population size

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 7. 1980 Published CRE Exam, Question 47 (modified).

4.2. In 1000 trials, independent, with the same probability of failure at each trial, 50 failures were
observed. Assume a Poisson distribution. Upper & lower 90% (symmetrical 80%) confidence limits
on the reliability are:

a. 0.96 – 0.94
b. 0.98 – 0.92
c. 0.99 – 0.96
d. 1.00 – 0.95

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 10. O’Connor, Patrick, D.T., Practical Reliability Engineering
Appendix III. Juran, J.M., Quality Control Handbook, Section 23. 1980 Published /CRE Exam,
Question 53.

4.3. A test of hypothesis involves:

I. Establishing
II. Determining if a one – sided or two – sided test is required
III. Establishing an significance level

a. I only
b. II and III only
c. I, II and III
d. I and III only

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 13/14. 1980 Published CRE Exam, Question 107 (modified).

4.4. Which of the following tests is used to determine whether an observed set of data fits a specific
theoretical distribution function?

a. Kolmogorov – Smirnov Test

b. F – Ratio Test
c. Student t – Test
d. Mann – Whitney U – Test
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References: O’Connor, Patrick, D. T., Practical Reliability Engineering. Omdahl, T.p., Reliability,
Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) Dictionary. CRE Primer, Section IV – 45 (partial). 1980
Published CRE Exam, Question 129 (modified).

4.5. A reliability test was terminated after 1 hours based upon a pre-established plan. An estimate
of hours was obtained. The lower mean-time-to-failure 0f 57 hours was obtained. The lower
95 percent confidence bound on the true population mean-time-to-failure is:

a. 125 hours
b. 22 hours
c. 27 hours
d. 11 hours

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 11 and X – 3. 1976 published CRE Exam, Question 86.

4.6. Which of the following techniqeues is used to predict values of one continuous variable based
on the values of other continuous variables?

a. Correlation analysis
b. Regression analysis
c. Weibull analysis
d. Hypothesis testing

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 108/109(and logic)

4.7. In a simple experimental design, factors A and B are both tested at 3 levels. How many
experiments are conducted?

a. 6
b. 8
c. 9
d. 12

Reference: CRE Primer, Sectin IV – 66 (plus logic).

4.8. In a simple experimental designs, factors A and B are both tested at 3 levels. What would bethe
degrees of freedom for the A x B interactin term?

a. 2
b. 4
c. 6
d. 8

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 91/92.

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4.9. which of the following DOE definition is NOT correct?

a. A block is defined as a group of treatment and levels that indicates the total number of
experiments required
b. Replication is defined as the additional experiments needed to increase the accuracy of a
measurement
c. A factor is defined as one of the variables whose influence is being studied in the experiment
d. A treatment is defined as the levels assigned to each factor during an experimetnal run

References: CRE Primer, Sectiom IV – 53/59 (and logic).

4.10. A designed experimet is conducted analyzing two factors on a component. The following
partially completed analysis of variance (ANOVA) table represents the results of the test.

At 95 percent confidence, which sources of variation is the most significant?

a. Factor A
b. Factor B
c. A x B Interaction
d. Error

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 97.

4.11. Which of the following is the best description of randomization?

a. A means of assuring parallel experimentation

b. A technique used to increase the validity of an experiment
c. The repetition of an observation or measurement
d. The relationship between two or more variables

Solution: This is basically a definition question and requires familiarity with experimental design
terms.

Answer a is filler. Answer c is a definition of replication or repeated trials in an experiment. Answer

d could represent correlation analysis or a simple two factor experimental design.

Answer b is the best choice. Randomization enhances the precision and validity of an experiment by
freeing the experiment from biases and the environment.

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 57 & 77.

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4.12. Five motors are run to failure. Failure times are 632 hours, 3450 hours, 816 hours, and 150
hours. What are the 90% symmetrical confidence limits for the mean time to failure? Assume an
exponential distribution of time to failure.

a. I only
b. II only
c. III only
d. IV only

References: CRE Primer, Sections III – 52/53 and IV – 10.

4.13. A randomly selected sample of bicycle helmets was tested for impact resistance. Given the
data results below, what is the 95% confidence interval for the mean bicycle helmet impact
resistance?

Test result:

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 19/19.

4.14. Six independent samples are taken of smokestack gas. The mean value of critical pollutant
was 30.2 ppm for the six samples, with a standard deviation S = 5 ppm .assuming that the samples
were taken at random times, what is the 90% confidence interval for the proportion of the critical
pollutant in the smokestack gas?

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 2/3 and 7.

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4.15. Calculate the F value and etermine the 80% confidence limits for

a. 0.684, 3.965
b. 0.724, 3.810
c. 0.700, 3.850
d. 2.30, 2.52

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 8, 32/34.

4.16. Which of the following characteristics apply to the Latin Square design?

I. The number of restrictions equals the number of treatments

II. Interest is centered on treatments
III. Fully randomized design
IV. Each treatment appears once per row and per column

a. II only
b. II and III only
c. I, II and IV only
d. I, II, III and IV

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 69.

4.17.Given the paired data in the table below. What is the sample linear correlation coefficient?

a. 0.00025
b. 0.3066
c. 0.3078
d. 0.4511

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 108. Triola, M. F. and Franklin, L. A., Business Statistics,
Chapter 12.

4.18. When designing experiments, which term describes the situation in which the effects of two
factor are not separable?

a. Covariate
b. Confounded
c. Interactive
d. Collinear

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 53.

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4.19.Your company has just installed a new computer data entry system and you must determine
the new input error rates. Management requires you to report the error rate within 0.5%, at a 95%
confidence level. What sample size do you need if the population standard deviation is 1.2%?

a. 15
b. 16
c. 22
d. 23

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 17.

4.20. A limousine service wants to find the most consistent route between the citycenter and the
airport to ease scheduling conflicts. 6 timed runs were made along route A and the standard
deviation was 10.5 minutes. Along route B, 8 test runs were made and the standard deviation
dropped to 5.2 minutes. Determine whether there is sufficient evidence to determine that route B is
more consistent, with 95% confidence. What are the calculatd and critical test values and what was
the result?

a. I only
b. II only
c. III only
d. IV only

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 32/34.

4.21. The following incomplete thread measurements were made during machine set-up on
industrial bolts. What is the highest value that the machine output average might be, to a 95%
confidence?

a. 3.937
b. 4.029
c. 4.000
d. 3.562

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 19/21.

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 4.22. Bayes’ Theorem uses a mixture of initial probabilities to obtain a final event probability. The
initial probabilities are revised based on new evidence. The initial probabilities are defined as:

a. Prior probabilities
b. Posterior probabilities
c. Personal probabilities
d. Classical probabilities

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 46/49. Morgan, B. (1968). An Introduction to Bayesian

Statistical Decision Processes. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Pp. 1-3.

4.23. A light bulb has a life rating of 600 burning hours. The life expectancy is based on an
exponential distribution. If the light bulb has burned for 200 hours, and if one wanted to calculate
the life expectancy for another 200 hours, the derived probability distribution would be defined as:

a. Prior distribution
b. Classical probability distribution
c. Posterior distribution
d. Relative frequency distribution

References:CRE Primer, Section IV – 46/49. Dodson, B., & Nolan, D. (1995).Reliability Engineering
Bible. Tucson, AZ: Quality publishing pp. 114-115.

4.24. Bayes’ Theorem relates to conditional probability of some event . This is defined as:

a. The probabilities are the same for all elementary outcomes

b. Event A will occur, given that event B has already occurred
c. Event B will occur due to the proportion of times that the event occurs in the long run
d. Event A will occur via the individual personal assessment of an outcome’s likelihood

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 46/49. Gonick, L., & Smith, W. (1993).The Cartoon Guide to
Statistics. New York: Harper Perennial. Pp. 35-51.

4.25. A null hypothesis states that a process has not improved as a result of some modifications.
The type II error is to conclude that:

a. We have failed to reject the null hypothesis when it is true

b. We have failed to reject the null hypothesis when it is false
c. we have rejected the null hypothesis
d. we have made a correct decision with alpha probability

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 14(and logic).

4.26. Determine the 95% confidence interval for a population proportion if 6 defectives were found
in a sample size of 100 units.

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Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 8.

4.27. Given the data below, what is the 90% confidence interval for the variance?

Reference: Cre primer, Section IV – 8.

4.28. the critical value for t, when making a two-tailed paried t tet, with samples of 13 and alpha =
0.05, is:

a. 1.782
b. 2.179
c. 2.064
d. 1.711

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 31.

4.29. Basic assumption underlying the analysis of variance include:

I. Obsevations are from normally distributed poplations

II. Observations are from populations with nequal variances
III. Observations are from populations wirh equal mean

a. I and II only
b. I and III only
c. II and III only
d. I, II, and III

References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 89. This question has been modified from a published 1984
CQE examination.

4.30. You have just conducted a designed experiment at three levels A, B, and C yielding the
following “coded” data:

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As a major step in your analysis , you calculate the degree of freedom for the “error” sum of squares
to be:

a. 7
b. 9
c. 6
d. 3
e.
References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 91/92. This question has been modified from a published 1974
COE examination.
4.31. Which of the following statements are true regarding nonparmetric tests?

I. They have a greater efficiency than comparable parametric tests

II. They can be applied to correlation studies
III. They require assumptions about the shape or nature of the populations involved
IV. They require computationsthat are more difficult than corresponding parametic
methods

a. II only
b. I and III only
c. II and IV only
d. I, II and III only
References: CRE Primer, Section IV – 38/45 (and logic). Triola & M. F. Franklin L.A. (1994) Business
Statistics – Chapter 15.

4.32.Which of the following nonparametric tests does NOT make a rankingevaluation by comparison
with a critical value of chi-square?
a. Mood’s median test
b. Spearman Rank correlation coefficient
c. Kendall Coefficient of concordance
d. Kruskal – Wallis test
Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 45.
4.33. Experiments can have many different objectives. Which of the following would be included in
the options?
I. Comparative objective
II. Screening objective
III. Optimized mixture proportions objective
IV. Response surface determination

a. I, II and III only

b. II and III only
c. I, III and IV only
d. I, II, III and IV

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 61.

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4.34.The smallest run number possible to examine the main effects of 22 factors at 2 levels is:
a. 23
b. 24
c. 44
d. 56
Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 71.
4.35.In the following Simplex-Lattice design, what is the proportion of component X3 at the
indicated test location?

a. 1.000
b. 0.667
c. 0.500
d. 0.333
Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 79.

4.36.An experiment yielding the following equation:

What CANNOT be said about the response surface:

a. It contains more than a 3D picture

b. It contains a curve component
c. It contains two slopes
d. It contains a twist component

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 83.

4.37.Identify the two response surface designs that require five levels of factors:

I. CCC
II. CCF
III. CCiI
IV. Box-Behnken

a. I and II only
b. II and III only
c. I and III only
d. III and IV only
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Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 86/87.

4.38.The alpha critical region, to determine if a new pen writes more strokes before refill, would be
placed:

a. In the upper tail

b. In both upper and lower tails
c. In the lower tail
d. In neither tail

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV - 13/16.

4.39.Most modern computer programs will perform an analysis of experimental residuals. What
other techniques can ve employed?

I. Control Charts
II. Histograms
III. Normal probability plots
IV. Dot plots

a. I and II only
b. II, III and IV only
c. II, and IV only
d. I, II, III and IV

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 65.

4.40.The linear graphs which accompany Taguchi designs have as their objectives:

I. Providing a compact design layout

II. Providing a visualization of the design options
III. Depicting where main factors can be assigned
IV. Depicting where interactions may be evaluated
V.
a. II only
b. I, II and III only
c. II, III and IV only
d. I, II, III, IV

Reference: CRE Primer, Section IV – 74.

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