Statistical Techniques for Data Analysis

*Z-Test*
Lecturer: Aldana Louzan Grandi
E-mail: alouzan@cct.ie

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Z-test

★ It is useful to test something that we believe follows a normal

distribution.
★ We need to know: variance or/and standard deviation of the
population.
★ It is used to test properties of the mean of a sample.
★ We can use it for samples greater than n = 30.
Test statistic z of a population:
Example

A company has developed a new range of batteries. They test a

sample of 50 of these batteries, and find that they have a mean life of
7.1 hours. Their older range of batteries was known to follow a normal
distribution, with a mean of 7 hours and standard deviation of 0.35.
The company claims their new batteries are longer-lasting than the old
ones. Is this claim justified?
Steps:

1. Write down the null Hypothesis and the alternative Hypothesis.

2. Define what type of test we are going to conduct.
3. Compute the z-test statistic
4. Provide your level of confidence
5. Make a decision (you can check the tables provided)
6. Make a formal conclusion
Example

A company has developed a new range of batteries. They test a

sample of 50 of these batteries, and find that they have a mean life of
7.1 hours. Their older range of batteries was known to follow a normal
distribution, with a mean of 7 hours and standard deviation of 0.35.
The company claims their new batteries are longer-lasting than the old
ones. Is this claim justified?
 Solution
➔ We need to decide how confident we need to
be to reject the null Hypothesis.
➔ If we pick 95% and as we are carrying a right
tailed test we need to ask:
2.0203 > 1.6449?
➔ We can conclude there is good evidence that
these batteries are better than the old ones
Solution
➔ If we pick 99% and as we are
carrying a right tailed test we need
to ask:
2.0203 > 2.3263?
➔ We do not reject the null
Hypothesis, because we do not
have enough evidence to confirm
the claim at the 1% level.
Interesting links & Extra reading
Articles:
★ Hypothesis Testing in Real Life
Extra Reading:
★ David Spiegelhalter, “The Art of Statistics”
★ Derek Rowntree, “Statistics without Tears”
★ Steve Lakin, “How to use Statistics”