Chp.

11

Statistics: Inference about

Population Variance

Professor: Lee Yung Hsin 李永新

138332@mail.tku.edu.tw

TA: jenniferlimerthaa@gmail.com
MS Teams : 409595526@o365.tku.edu.tw
Prof’s grading :

● Attendance 20% Attendance 10%

● TA 15%
● Midterm Exam 30% Class Participation 5%

● Final Exam 30%

● Questionnaire (Survey) 5%
● Notes (Bonus) 10%
11.1 - INFERENCE ABOUT A POPULATION VARIANCE

*example is in Prof’s ppt

(Buyer’s Digest)
EXAMPLE - Hypothesis Testing About a Population Variance (Lower tail test)
Q: A scuba instructor wants to record the collective depths each of his students dives during their
checkout. He is interested in how the depths vary, even though everyone should have been at the
same depth. He believes the standard deviation of the depths is 1.2 meters. But his assistant thinks
the standard deviation is less than 1.2 meters. The instructor wants to test this claim. The scuba
instructor uses his most recent class of 20 students as a sample and finds that the standard deviation
of the depths is 0.85 meters. At the 1% significance level, test if the variability in the depths of the
student scuba divers is less than claimed.
(Sample variance
A: (1) Hypothesis (Lower tail test) = 0.85 x 0.85 = 0.7225)

≥ Population variance
= 1.2 x 1.2 = 1.44
df = n - 1 = 20 - 1 = 19

(2) Test Statistic

EXAMPLE - Hypothesis Testing About a Population Variance (Lower tail test)

A: (3) Critical Value Rejection Rule:

● Find based on a & df, using the

Chi square distribution table

a=0.01 SO 1-a = 0.99 , df = 19

(X² = 9.5329) > X²(1-a) = 7.633

So we do not reject H0.

At the 1% significance level, there
is not enough evidence to suggest
that the variation in the depths of
students is less than claimed.
EXAMPLE - Hypothesis Testing About a Population Variance (Lower tail test)

A: (4) P Value Rejection Rule:

● Find estimation of the p-value from chi dist. table:

(X² = 9.5329)
Remember that since this is LOWER tail test,
the p-value will not simply be (0.95 < p value < 0.975),

Instead it will be:

(1 - 0.975) < p value < (1 - 0.95)
0.025 < P VALUE < 0.05

● Since a = 0.01, and (0.025 < P VALUE < 0.05) :

P-value > a=0.01, so we do not reject H0.
EXAMPLE - Hypothesis Testing About a Population Variance (Two tail test)

Q: With individual lines at its various windows, a post office finds that the standard deviation for
normally distributed waiting times for customers is 7.2 minutes. The post office experiments with a
single, main waiting line and finds that for a random sample of 25 customers the waiting times for
customers have a standard deviation of 4.5 minutes. At the 5% significance level, determine if the
single line changed the variation among the wait times for customers.

A: (1) Hypothesis (Two tail test) (Sample variance

= 4.5 x 4.5 = 20.25)
Population variance
= 7.2 x 7.2 = 51.84

(2) Test Statistic df = n - 1 = 25 - 1 = 24

EXAMPLE - Hypothesis Testing About a Population Variance (Two tail test)

A: (3) Critical Value Rejection Rule:

● Find & based on a & df,

using the Chi square distribution table

a=0.05 SO a/2 = 0.025 & 1 - a/2 = 0.975 , df = 24

(X² = 9.375) < X²(1-a/2) = 10.856

So we reject H0.
At the 5% significance level, there is enough
evidence to suggest that the variation among
the wait times for customers has changed.
 A: (4) P Value Rejection Rule:

● Find estimation of the p-value from chi dist. table:

(X² = 9.375)

Remember that since this is TWO tail test:

#1. We need to know if (X² = 9.375) corresponds to the right or left tail:
- If X² > (df - 2) : it corresponds to the right tail (X² = 9.375)
- If X² < (df - 2) : it corresponds to the left tail
For this one: 9.375 < (df 24-2) , so it’s the left tail.

#2. Since (X² = 9.375) = left tail, it means the area (½ p-value) from the table would be :
1 - 0.995 = 0.005, this is (½ p value) —> p value = 0.005 x 2 = 0.01

#3. So the final p-value for two tail test would be: p-value < 0.01

● (P-value< 0.01) < (a=0.05), so we reject H0.

11.2 - INFERENCE ABOUT 2 POPULATION VARIANCEs
**we will use
F table
instead of chi
square table

S₁² is the bigger

sample variance

*example is in Prof’s ppt (Buyer’s Digest)

EXAMPLE - Hypothesis Testing About 2 Population Variances (Upper tail test)

Q: Samples of 31 men and 41 women will be used to study attitudes about current political issues.
The researcher conducting the study wants to test to see whether the sample data indicate that
women show a greater variation in attitude on political issues than men. The survey results provide a
sample variance of 120 for women and a sample variance of 80 for men. We will use a level of
significance a = .05 to conduct the hypothesis test.

A: (1) Hypothesis (Upper tail test)

a = 0.05
Population 1 = women df1 = 41 - 1 = 40
Population 2 = men df2 = 31 -1 = 30

(2) Test Statistic

EXAMPLE - Hypothesis Testing About a Population Variance (Upper tail test)
A: (3) Critical Value Rejection Rule:

● Find Fa based on a & the two df’s, using the F table:

a=0.05 -> we use a = 0.10 when finding Fa

(F = 1.5) < Fa = 1.57

So we do not
reject H0.
EXAMPLE - Hypothesis Testing About a Population Variance (Upper tail test)

A: (4) P Value Rejection Rule:

● Find estimation of the p-value from chi dist. table:

Test statistic (F= 1.5)

is located here,
less than 1.57

Which means that the p value is greater than 0.10

P VALUE > 0.10

● Since a = 0.05, and (p value > 0.1) :

(p-value = 0.1) > (a=0.05), so we do not reject H0.

At the 5% significance level, there is not enough evidence to suggest that women
show a greater variation in attitude on political issues than men