Hypothesis Testing Examples

1. A 1992 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (“A Critical Appraisal of 98.6 Degrees
F, the Upper Limit of the Normal Body Temperature, and Other Legacies of Carl Reinhold August
Wunderlich”) reported body temperature, gender, and heart rate for a number of subjects. The body
temperatures for 25 female subjects follow: 97.8, 97.2, 97.4, 97.6, 97.8, 97.9, 98.0, 98.0, 98.0, 98.1, 98.2,
98.3, 98.3, 98.4, 98.4, 98.4, 98.5, 98.6, 98.6, 98.7, 98.8, 98.8, 98.9, 98.9, and 99.0.
What is the null and alternative hypothesis?
𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻: 𝜇𝜇 = 98.6
𝐻𝐻𝐻𝐻: 𝜇𝜇 ≠ 98.6
This corresponds to a two-tailed test, for which a test for one mean with unknown population standard
deviation will be used.
What is the critical region?
Degrees of Freedom (df) = samples – 1 = 25 – 1 = 24
Look for df = 24 at alpha = 0.05
Based on the information, the significance level (alpha) = 0.05. The critical value for two-tailed test (tc) is
2.064 based on the T-Test Table

The critical region is -2.06 > t > +2.06

What is the test statistic for this test that mean body temperature is 98.6 assuming α=0.05 ?
Given:
𝜇𝜇 = 98.6
𝛼𝛼 = 0.05
𝑛𝑛 = 25

Solve for the mean and sample standard deviation.

𝑥𝑥̅ = 98.264
s = 0.4821
Solve for t test (two-tailed test)
𝑥𝑥̅ − 𝜇𝜇 98.264 − 98.6
𝑡𝑡 − 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 = 𝑠𝑠 = = −𝟑𝟑. 𝟒𝟒𝟒𝟒𝟒𝟒
0.4821
√𝑛𝑛 √25

Do we reject the null hypothesis?

We reject the null hypothesis if the |t-test| > |critical value|
Since |-3.485| > |2.06|, we reject Ho.
The female students in an undergraduate engineering core course at ASU self-reported their heights to the
nearest inch. The data follow.

62 64 61 67 65 68 61 65 60 65 64 63 59
68 64 66 68 69 65 67 62 66 68 67 66 65
69 65 69 65 67 67 65 63 64 67 65

What is the test statistic for this test that the mean height of female engineering students at ASU is
at least 65 inches assuming α=0.05?

Given:

𝜇𝜇 = 65
𝛼𝛼 = 0.05
𝑛𝑛 = 37

Solve for the mean and sample standard deviation.

𝑥𝑥̅ = 65.1622
𝑠𝑠 = 2.5442

Solve for t-test

𝑥𝑥̅ − 𝜇𝜇 65.1622 − 65
𝑡𝑡 − 𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡𝑡 = 𝑠𝑠 = = 𝟎𝟎. 𝟑𝟑𝟑𝟑𝟑𝟑𝟑𝟑
2.5442
√𝑛𝑛 √37
What is the critical region for this test?

Solve for one tailed t-test since

𝐻𝐻𝑜𝑜 > 65
𝜇𝜇 = 65
𝛼𝛼 = 0.05
𝑛𝑛 = 37, 𝑑𝑑𝑑𝑑 = 𝑛𝑛 − 1 = 36

Using a T-Table, find df = 36, α = 0.05, for 1 tailed test

Critical Range is t > +1.6883

Do we reject or accept Ho?

𝐻𝐻𝑜𝑜 > 65
We reject the null hypothesis if the |t-test| > |critical value|
Since | 0.3887 | < |1.6883|, we fail to reject Ho. (t test is less than the critical value therefore we cant reject
the null hypothesis)

How to use Excel for T test

For the mean

=AVERAGE

For the Sample Standard Deviation

=STDEV.S

For the p-value

=TDIST(T value, degrees of freedom,1 or 2 (one or two tails))