MA2177 Exercise 8 – Chapter 8 Inferences about population mean (with σ unknown)

and inferences about population standard deviation or variance

Inferences about population mean (with σ unknown)

1. A tobacco company advertised that its best-selling non-filtered cigarettes contain at most 40
mg of nicotine, but Consumer Advocate magazine ran tests of 10 randomly selected
cigarettes and found the amounts shown in the accompanying list. The sample is small
because the laboratory work required to extract the nicotine is time-consuming and expensive.
Using a 0.01 significance level, test the editor’s belief that the mean is greater than 40 mg.

47.3 39.3 40.3 38.3 46.3 43.3 42.3 49.3 40.3 46.3

2. A new laboratory technician read a report that the average number of students using the
computer laboratory per hour was 18. To test this hypothesis, he selected a day at random
and kept track of the number of students who used the laboratory over an 8-hour period. The
results were as follow:

20 24 18 16 16 19 21 23

(i) At α = 0.05, test the claim that the average number is actually 18.
(ii) Find the 95% confidence interval of the average number from the survey.

3. The number of grams of carbohydrates in a 12-ounce serving of a regular soft drink is listed
here for a random sample of sodas. Estimate the mean number of carbohydrates in all brands
of soda with 95% confidence.

48 37 52 40 43 41 45 45 33 35

4. When a poultry farmer uses her regular feed, the newborn chickens have normally distributed
weights with a mean of 62.2 oz. In an experiment with an enriched feed mixture, nine
chickens are born with the weights (in ounces) given below. Use a 0.01 significance level to
test the claim that the mean weight is higher with the enriched feed.

61.4 62.2 66.9 63.3 66.2 66.0 63.1 63.7 66.6

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Inferences about population standard deviation (or population variance)

5. With individual lines at its various windows, the HSBC found that the standard deviation for
normally distributed waiting times was 6.3 minutes. The bank experimented with a single
main waiting line and found that for a simple random sample of 10 customers, the waiting
times were listed below:

4.7 10.1 6.3 7.9 15.3 4.6 12.3 3.8 9.2 5.6

Assume that the waiting times are normally distributed. Use a 0.05 significance level to test
the claim that a single line causes lower variation among the waiting times.

6. Using Data of Heights of Men Based on data from the National Health Survey, men aged
25 – 34 have heights with a standard deviation of 2.9 in. At the 0.05 level of significance,
test the claim that men aged 45 – 54 have heights with a different standard deviation. The
heights of 10 randomly selected men in the 45 – 54 age group are listed below.

66.80 71.22 65.80 66.24 69.62

68.10 72.14 71.58 66.85 69.88