120MSE/8

May 2015

Coventry University

Faculty of Engineering and Computing

120MSE

Statistics
Instructions to candidates

Time allowed: 3 Hours

Answer all questions

The total number of questions in this paper: 8

Questions 1-6 each carry 10 marks

Questions 7-8 each carry 20 marks

Start each question on a new page and carefully identify your answers with the
correct question number

For this examination you will be supplied with the following:

Statistical Formulae (attached)

Statistical Tables (attached)

You may take this question paper away at the end of the examination
Please keep in a safe place for future reference

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Answer all questions Marks awarded are shown in brackets

All the questions on this paper refer to the operations of a small mail order company.

1. The table below shows summary statistics for the value (£) of orders received by
telephone and through the Internet yesterday.

Source Mean Median S.d. Q1 Q3 Min Max

Telephone 263 270 44 238 301 23 619
Internet 192 151 62 96 274 3 472

a) Construct a boxplot to compare the telephone and internet orders. (3 marks)

b) Compare and contrast the telephone and internet orders. (7 marks)

2. The company employs two separate carriers, Allways and Byfords, to deliver its
parcels. 80% of parcels are carried by Allways and the remaining 20% by
Byfords. Records show that 0.1% of parcels carried by Allways are lost in transit,
compared with 0.2% of those carried by Byfords.

a) What percentage of all parcels are lost in transit? (3 marks)

b) If a parcel is lost, what is the probability that it was carried by Byfords?

(3 marks)

c) If 1200 parcels were taken by Allways yesterday, what is the probability

that at least 1 is lost in transit? (4 marks)

3. Julie handles all the orders received by Internet during the day shift. On average
she receives 0.56 orders per minute. Assume that orders follow a Poisson
distribution.

a) What is the probability that exactly 1 order comes through during the
1 minute she left her desk to consult a colleague? (2 marks)

b) What is the probability that at least 2 orders come through during the
2 minutes she spent getting a cup of coffee? (4 marks)

c) What is the most likely number of orders to come through during a

5 minute telephone call to her mother? Justify your answer. (2 marks)

d) What does the Poisson distribution assume here? (2 marks)

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4. The company claims that 75% of customers receive their delivery within two days
of placing their order. A researcher telephoned 60 customers after their orders
had been dispatched to find out how long each of their deliveries took to arrive.
In fact only 39 of these orders arrived within two days.

a) Use this sample to calculate a 90% confidence interval for the true
percentage of orders that are delivered within two days. (6 marks)

b) Comment on the company’s claim. (1 mark)

c) How large a sample would be needed to estimate with 90% confidence the
true percentage to within +/- 5? (3 marks)

5. The researcher decided to extend his analysis (above) by looking to see whether
there was any connection between delivery times and the geographical location
of the customers. This produced the following table:

Within 2 days Longer than 2 days

South 13 11
Midlands 18 3
North 8 7

Test whether these data indicate an association between delivery time and
geographical location, showing your method at each stage and drawing a clear
conclusion in context. (10
marks)

6. As part of the analysis of postal charges, a student on placement with the

company weighed 11 parcels that were due to be posted one morning and used
the Internet to compare the postage charge for each parcel using Royal Mail and
a rival firm People Post. The data were as follows:

Parcel 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Mean S.d.

Royal Mail 1.28 2.14 3.25 4.45 5.15 6.55 8.22 11.02 13.82 16.62 19.42 8.36 6.09
People Post 1.00 1.50 3.00 3.50 4.00 6.00 8.00 12.00 15.00 17.00 20.00 8.27 6.68
Difference 0.28 0.64 0.25 0.95 1.15 0.55 0.22 -0.98 -1.18 -0.38 -0.58 0.08 0.77

a) Explain why the standard deviation for the difference is such a small value
compared to the two individual standard deviations. (1 mark)

b) Test whether these data show that People Post is cheaper on average than
Royal Mail, showing your method at each stage and drawing a clear
conclusion. (8 marks)

c) Comment on why your conclusion might be misleading. (1 marks)

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7. In an attempt to model postage charges, the student used the data from the
previous question to carry out a regression analysis of Royal Mail postage
charge (£) against the weight (kg) of the parcel. Extracts from a Minitab analysis
are shown below

Predictor Coef SE Coef T P

Constant 2.4500 0.4487 5.46 0.000
Weight 1.50221 0.08189 18.34 0.000

S = 1.03658 R-Sq = 97.4%

Predicted Values for New Observations

New
Obs Fit SE Fit 95% CI 95% PI
1 24.983 0.959 (_______, _______) (21.789, 28.177)X

a) Write down the regression equation for predicting postage from weight.
(2 marks)

b) What postage charge is predicted for a parcel weighing 700g? (2 marks)

Question 7 continued on next page

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Question 7 continued

c) Interpret the value of R-squared in this context. (2 marks)

d) Calculate the correlation coefficient between postage and weight,

and interpret its value in this context. (3 marks)

e) Interpret the weight coefficient and the constant coefficient in this context.
(3 marks)

f) What is the purpose of the given residual plot?

What do you conclude from it here? (2 marks)

g) The output shows a prediction interval for the postage charge of a parcel
weighing 15 kg. Calculate the missing 95% CI values and explain with
reasons why this prediction may not be reliable. (6 marks)

8. As part of its review of the amount it charges for postage, the company has
conducted an analysis of the weights of the different items that it stocks. Items
have a mean weight of 280g and a standard deviation of 60g. You may assume
that weights of different items follow a Normal distribution.

a) What percentage of items weigh less than 400g? (2 marks)

b) What percentage of items weigh between 235g and 325g? (3 marks)

c) If the company decides that the lightest 20% of items should be advertised as
having free postage, what should the weight limit be for free postage?
(3 marks)

Just before Christmas, Mrs Smith ordered an item as a gift for her husband.
Independently, Mr Smith ordered two different items as a gift for her.

d) What is the probability that the combined weight of Mr Smith’s two items
is below 400g? (6 marks)

e) What is the probability that Mrs Smith’s order weighs more than Mr Smith’s
order? (6 marks)

End

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120MSE STATISTICS FORMULAE

s2 = sxy = Pooled s =

P(AB) = P(A) + P(B) – P(AB) P(AB) = P(A) P(B|A)

Binomial P(X=x) = nCx px(1-p)n-x  = np 2 = np(1-p)
Poisson P(X=x) = xe-/x! = 2 = 
 = E(X) =  x P(X=x) =  x f(x) dx 2 = V(X) = E(X2) – 2
E(aX + bY + c) = a E(X) + b E(Y) + c
V(aX + bY + c) = a2 V(X) + b2 V(Y) provided X, Y are independent

Quantity Point Estimate Standard Error

 s / √n
1 – 2 -

p f = X/n

p1 – p2 f1 – f2

 a=


b=

Mean Y at x=x0 a + b x0

Individual Y at x=x0 a + b x0

r= r2 = s=

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Normal Distribution Tables

11.51% 11.51%

z 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09
0.0 0.5000 0.4960 0.4920 0.4880 0.4840 0.4801 0.4761 0.4721 0.4681 0.4641
0.1 0.4602 0.4562 0.4522 0.4483 0.4443 0.4404 0.4364 0.4325 0.4286 0.4247
0.2 0.4207 0.4168 0.4129 0.4090 0.4052 0.4013 0.3974 0.3936 0.3897 0.3859
0.3 0.3821 0.3783 0.3745 0.3707 0.3669 0.3632 0.3594 0.3557 0.3520 0.3483
0.4 0.3446 0.3409 0.3372 0.3336 0.3300 0.3264 0.3228 0.3192 0.3156 0.3121
0.5 0.3085 0.3050 0.3015 0.2981 0.2946 0.2912 0.2877 0.2843 0.2810 0.2776
0.6 0.2743 0.2709 0.2676 0.2643 0.2611 0.2578 0.2546 0.2514 0.2483 0.2451
0.7 0.2420 0.2389 0.2358 0.2327 0.2296 0.2266 0.2236 0.2206 0.2177 0.2148
0.8 0.2119 0.2090 0.2061 0.2033 0.2005 0.1977 0.1949 0.1922 0.1894 0.1867
0.9 0.1841 0.1814 0.1788 0.1762 0.1736 0.1711 0.1685 0.1660 0.1635 0.1611
1.0 0.1587 0.1562 0.1539 0.1515 0.1492 0.1469 0.1446 0.1423 0.1401 0.1379
1.1 0.1357 0.1335 0.1314 0.1292 0.1271 0.1251 0.1230 0.1210 0.1190 0.1170
1.2 0.1151 0.1131 0.1112 0.1093 0.1075 0.1056 0.1038 0.1020 0.1003 0.0985
1.3 0.0968 0.0951 0.0934 0.0918 0.0901 0.0885 0.0869 0.0853 0.0838 0.0823
1.4 0.0808 0.0793 0.0778 0.0764 0.0749 0.0735 0.0721 0.0708 0.0694 0.0681
1.5 0.0668 0.0655 0.0643 0.0630 0.0618 0.0606 0.0594 0.0582 0.0571 0.0559
1.6 0.0548 0.0537 0.0526 0.0516 0.0505 0.0495 0.0485 0.0475 0.0465 0.0455
1.7 0.0446 0.0436 0.0427 0.0418 0.0409 0.0401 0.0392 0.0384 0.0375 0.0367
1.8 0.0359 0.0351 0.0344 0.0336 0.0329 0.0322 0.0314 0.0307 0.0301 0.0294
1.9 0.0287 0.0281 0.0274 0.0268 0.0262 0.0256 0.0250 0.0244 0.0239 0.0233
2.0 0.0228 0.0222 0.0217 0.0212 0.0207 0.0202 0.0197 0.0192 0.0188 0.0183
2.1 0.0179 0.0174 0.0170 0.0166 0.0162 0.0158 0.0154 0.0150 0.0146 0.0143
2.2 0.0139 0.0136 0.0132 0.0129 0.0125 0.0122 0.0119 0.0116 0.0113 0.0110
2.3 0.0107 0.0104 0.0102 0.0099 0.0096 0.0094 0.0091 0.0089 0.0087 0.0084
2.4 0.0082 0.0080 0.0078 0.0075 0.0073 0.0071 0.0069 0.0068 0.0066 0.0064
2.5 0.0062 0.0060 0.0059 0.0057 0.0055 0.0054 0.0052 0.0051 0.0049 0.0048
2.6 0.0047 0.0045 0.0044 0.0043 0.0041 0.0040 0.0039 0.0038 0.0037 0.0036
2.7 0.0035 0.0034 0.0033 0.0032 0.0031 0.0030 0.0029 0.0028 0.0027 0.0026
2.8 0.0026 0.0025 0.0024 0.0023 0.0023 0.0022 0.0021 0.0021 0.0020 0.0019
2.9 0.0019 0.0018 0.0018 0.0017 0.0016 0.0016 0.0015 0.0015 0.0014 0.0014
3.0 0.0013 0.0013 0.0013 0.0012 0.0012 0.0011 0.0011 0.0011 0.0010 0.0010
3.1 0.0010 0.0009 0.0009 0.0009 0.0008 0.0008 0.0008 0.0008 0.0007 0.0007
3.2 0.0007 0.0007 0.0006 0.0006 0.0006 0.0006 0.0006 0.0005 0.0005 0.0005
3.3 0.0005 0.0005 0.0005 0.0004 0.0004 0.0004 0.0004 0.0004 0.0004 0.0003
3.4 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 0.0003 0.0002
3.5 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002 0.0002

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t-Distribution Tables

 = degrees of freedom

 = upper tail probability

e.g. for 95% confidence interval

use  = 0.025

 0.1 0.05 0.025 0.01 0.005 0.001 0.0005

 1 3.078 6.314 12.706 31.821 63.657 318.309 636.619
2 1.886 2.920 4.303 6.965 9.925 22.327 31.599
3 1.638 2.353 3.182 4.541 5.841 10.215 12.924
4 1.533 2.132 2.776 3.747 4.604 7.173 8.610
5 1.476 2.015 2.571 3.365 4.032 5.893 6.869
6 1.440 1.943 2.447 3.143 3.707 5.208 5.959
7 1.415 1.895 2.365 2.998 3.499 4.785 5.408
8 1.397 1.860 2.306 2.896 3.355 4.501 5.041
9 1.383 1.833 2.262 2.821 3.250 4.297 4.781
10 1.372 1.812 2.228 2.764 3.169 4.144 4.587
11 1.363 1.796 2.201 2.718 3.106 4.025 4.437
12 1.356 1.782 2.179 2.681 3.055 3.930 4.318
13 1.350 1.771 2.160 2.650 3.012 3.852 4.221
14 1.345 1.761 2.145 2.624 2.977 3.787 4.140
15 1.341 1.753 2.131 2.602 2.947 3.733 4.073
16 1.337 1.746 2.120 2.583 2.921 3.686 4.015
17 1.333 1.740 2.110 2.567 2.898 3.646 3.965
18 1.330 1.734 2.101 2.552 2.878 3.610 3.922
19 1.328 1.729 2.093 2.539 2.861 3.579 3.883
20 1.325 1.725 2.086 2.528 2.845 3.552 3.850
21 1.323 1.721 2.080 2.518 2.831 3.527 3.819
22 1.321 1.717 2.074 2.508 2.819 3.505 3.792
23 1.319 1.714 2.069 2.500 2.807 3.485 3.768
24 1.318 1.711 2.064 2.492 2.797 3.467 3.745
25 1.316 1.708 2.060 2.485 2.787 3.450 3.725
26 1.315 1.706 2.056 2.479 2.779 3.435 3.707
27 1.314 1.703 2.052 2.473 2.771 3.421 3.690
28 1.313 1.701 2.048 2.467 2.763 3.408 3.674
29 1.311 1.699 2.045 2.462 2.756 3.396 3.659
30 1.310 1.697 2.042 2.457 2.750 3.385 3.646
40 1.303 1.684 2.021 2.423 2.704 3.307 3.551
60 1.296 1.671 2.000 2.390 2.660 3.232 3.460
120 1.289 1.658 1.980 2.358 2.617 3.160 3.373
∞ 1.282 1.645 1.960 2.326 2.576 3.090 3.291 z-values

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Chi-squared Distribution Tables

 = degrees of freedom

 = upper tail probability

e.g. for 95% confidence interval use  = 0.975 and 0.025

   0.995 0.99 0.975 0.95 0.05 0.025 0.01 0.005

 1 0.000 0.000 0.001 0.004 3.841 5.024 6.635 7.879
2 0.010 0.020 0.051 0.103 5.991 7.378 9.210 10.597
3 0.072 0.115 0.216 0.352 7.815 9.348 11.345 12.838
4 0.207 0.297 0.484 0.711 9.488 11.143 13.277 14.860
5 0.412 0.554 0.831 1.145 11.070 12.833 15.086 16.750
6 0.676 0.872 1.237 1.635 12.592 14.449 16.812 18.548
7 0.989 1.239 1.690 2.167 14.067 16.013 18.475 20.278
8 1.344 1.646 2.180 2.733 15.507 17.535 20.090 21.955
9 1.735 2.088 2.700 3.325 16.919 19.023 21.666 23.589
10 2.156 2.558 3.247 3.940 18.307 20.483 23.209 25.188
11 2.603 3.053 3.816 4.575 19.675 21.920 24.725 26.757
12 3.074 3.571 4.404 5.226 21.026 23.337 26.217 28.300
13 3.565 4.107 5.009 5.892 22.362 24.736 27.688 29.819
14 4.075 4.660 5.629 6.571 23.685 26.119 29.141 31.319
15 4.601 5.229 6.262 7.261 24.996 27.488 30.578 32.801
16 5.142 5.812 6.908 7.962 26.296 28.845 32.000 34.267
17 5.697 6.408 7.564 8.672 27.587 30.191 33.409 35.718
18 6.265 7.015 8.231 9.390 28.869 31.526 34.805 37.156
19 6.844 7.633 8.907 10.117 30.144 32.852 36.191 38.582
20 7.434 8.260 9.591 10.851 31.410 34.170 37.566 39.997
21 8.034 8.897 10.283 11.591 32.671 35.479 38.932 41.401
22 8.643 9.542 10.982 12.338 33.924 36.781 40.289 42.796
23 9.260 10.196 11.689 13.091 35.172 38.076 41.638 44.181
24 9.886 10.856 12.401 13.848 36.415 39.364 42.980 45.559
25 10.520 11.524 13.120 14.611 37.652 40.646 44.314 46.928
26 11.160 12.198 13.844 15.379 38.885 41.923 45.642 48.290
27 11.808 12.879 14.573 16.151 40.113 43.195 46.963 49.645
28 12.461 13.565 15.308 16.928 41.337 44.461 48.278 50.993
29 13.121 14.256 16.047 17.708 42.557 45.722 49.588 52.336
30 13.787 14.953 16.791 18.493 43.773 46.979 50.892 53.672
40 20.707 22.164 24.433 26.509 55.758 59.342 63.691 66.766
60 35.534 37.485 40.482 43.188 79.082 83.298 88.379 91.952
146.56 152.21 158.95 163.64
120 83.852 86.923 91.573 95.705 7 1 0 8
422.30 429.38 439.93 449.14 553.12 563.85 576.49 585.20
500 3 8 6 7 7 2 3 7

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F- Distribution Tables
 = degrees of freedom in the numerator
 = degrees of freedom in the denominator
 = upper tail probability
1 2 3 4 5 6 8 10 
1 161.4 199.5 215.7 224.6 230.2 234.0 238.9 241.9 5.0%
1 647.8 799.5 864.2 899.6 921.8 937.1 956.7 968.6 2.5%
1 4052 4999 5403 5625 5764 5859 5981 6056 1.0%
1 >9999 >9999 >9999 >9999 >9999 >9999 >9999 >9999 0.1%
2 18.51 19.00 19.16 19.25 19.30 19.33 19.37 19.40 5.0%
2 38.51 39.00 39.17 39.25 39.30 39.33 39.37 39.40 2.5%
2 98.50 99.00 99.17 99.25 99.30 99.33 99.37 99.40 1.0%
2 999 999 999 999 999 999 999 999 0.1%
3 10.13 9.55 9.28 9.12 9.01 8.94 8.85 8.79 5.0%
3 17.44 16.04 15.44 15.10 14.88 14.73 14.54 14.42 2.5%
3 34.12 30.82 29.46 28.71 28.24 27.91 27.49 27.23 1.0%
3 167.0 148.5 141.1 137.1 134.6 132.8 130.6 129.2 0.1%
4 7.71 6.94 6.59 6.39 6.26 6.16 6.04 5.96 5.0%
4 12.22 10.65 9.98 9.60 9.36 9.20 8.98 8.84 2.5%
4 21.20 18.00 16.69 15.98 15.52 15.21 14.80 14.55 1.0%
4 74.14 61.25 56.18 53.44 51.71 50.53 49.00 48.05 0.1%
5 6.61 5.79 5.41 5.19 5.05 4.95 4.82 4.74 5.0%
5 10.01 8.43 7.76 7.39 7.15 6.98 6.76 6.62 2.5%
5 16.26 13.27 12.06 11.39 10.97 10.67 10.29 10.05 1.0%
5 47.18 37.12 33.20 31.09 29.75 28.83 27.65 26.92 0.1%
6 5.99 5.14 4.76 4.53 4.39 4.28 4.15 4.06 5.0%
6 8.81 7.26 6.60 6.23 5.99 5.82 5.60 5.46 2.5%
6 13.75 10.92 9.78 9.15 8.75 8.47 8.10 7.87 1.0%
6 35.51 27.00 23.70 21.92 20.80 20.03 19.03 18.41 0.1%
7 5.59 4.74 4.35 4.12 3.97 3.87 3.73 3.64 5.0%
7 8.07 6.54 5.89 5.52 5.29 5.12 4.90 4.76 2.5%
7 12.25 9.55 8.45 7.85 7.46 7.19 6.84 6.62 1.0%
7 29.25 21.69 18.77 17.20 16.21 15.52 14.63 14.08 0.1%
8 5.32 4.46 4.07 3.84 3.69 3.58 3.44 3.35 5.0%
8 7.57 6.06 5.42 5.05 4.82 4.65 4.43 4.30 2.5%
8 11.26 8.65 7.59 7.01 6.63 6.37 6.03 5.81 1.0%
8 25.41 18.49 15.83 14.39 13.48 12.86 12.05 11.54 0.1%
9 5.12 4.26 3.86 3.63 3.48 3.37 3.23 3.14 5.0%
9 7.21 5.71 5.08 4.72 4.48 4.32 4.10 3.96 2.5%
9 10.56 8.02 6.99 6.42 6.06 5.80 5.47 5.26 1.0%
9 22.86 16.39 13.90 12.56 11.71 11.13 10.37 9.89 0.1%
10 4.96 4.10 3.71 3.48 3.33 3.22 3.07 2.98 5.0%
10 6.94 5.46 4.83 4.47 4.24 4.07 3.85 3.72 2.5%
10 10.04 7.56 6.55 5.99 5.64 5.39 5.06 4.85 1.0%
10 21.04 14.91 12.55 11.28 10.48 9.93 9.20 8.75 0.1%
30 3.84 3.00 2.60 2.37 2.21 2.10 1.94 1.83 5.0%
30 5.02 3.69 3.12 2.79 2.57 2.41 2.19 2.05 2.5%
30 6.64 4.61 3.78 3.32 3.02 2.80 2.51 2.32 1.0%
30 10.83 6.91 5.42 4.62 4.10 3.74 3.27 2.96 0.1%

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