Statistics

Católica Porto Business School

Workshop 10

1. A certain proportion of devices produced by a mobile phone manufacturer are defective.

In a sample of 100 randomly selected mobile phones, 20 were found to be defective.

(a) Construct an 80% confidence interval for the true proportion of defective phones.
Interpret your answer.

(b) Determine the sample size required to construct an 80% confidence interval for
the true proportion of defective phones with a margin of error of 0.01.

2. A random sample of 100 students from the Católica Porto Business School was selected.
Their mean GPA (grade point average) was 12.20, with a standard deviation of 2.60.

(a) Test at the 10% level of significance whether the true mean GPA of all students
at the Católica Porto Business School is equal to 12.5.
(b) A statistician takes another random sample of 100 students from the Católica
Porto Business School to test the null hypothesis that the true mean GPA of all
students at the Católica Porto Business School, which is denoted by µ, is equal
to µ0 against the following alternative hypothesis:

Ho : µ = µ0
Ha : µ ̸= µ0

The null hypothesis is not rejected at the 5% significance level. Does this neces-
sarily imply that µ0 is contained in the 95% confidence interval for µ? Explain.

3. A battery manufacturer claims that the lifetime of a certain type of battery has a
population mean of 50 hours. The population distribution of lifetimes is known to be
normal with a standard deviation of 3 hours.

(a) A random sample of 25 batteries was selected. The sample mean lifetime was
found to be 48.2 hours. Using a 10% significance level, conduct a hypothesis test
to determine whether the population mean lifetime differs from 50 hours.
(b) Now suppose that a consumer group claims that the population mean lifetime is
no more than 50 hours. To check this claim, the random sample of 16 batteries was
taken. Using a 10% significance level, determine what the sample mean lifetime
needs to be to reject the consumer group’s claim.

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4. An engineering research center reports that through the use of a new computer control
system, automobiles should achieve, on average, an additional 3 miles per gallon of gas.
A random sample of 100 automobiles was used to evaluate this product. The sample
mean increase in miles per gallon achieved was 2.4, and the sample standard deviation
was 1.8 miles per gallon. Test the claim that the population mean is at least 3 miles
per gallon using a 1% significance level.