1. The college bookstore tells prospective students that the average cost of its textbooks is $52 with a standard deviation of $4.50. A group of smart statistics students thinks that the average cost is higher. In order to test the bookstore’s claim against their alternative, the students will select a random sample of size 100.
Assume that the mean from their random sample is $52.80. Perform a hypothesis test (6 step procedure outlined in class) at the 5% level of significance and state your decision. 2. A certain chemical pollutant in the Genesee River has been constant for several years with mean μ = 34 ppm (parts per million) and standard deviation σ = 8 ppm.
A group of factory representatives whose companies discharge liquids into the river is now claiming that they have lowered the average with improved filtration devices.
A group of environmentalists will test to see if this is true at the 4% level of significance. Assume that their sample of size 50 gives a mean of 32.5 ppm. .
Perform a hypothesis test (6 step procedure outlined in class) at the 4% level of significance and state your decision.
3. A manufacturing process produces ball bearings with diameters that have a normal distribution with known standard deviation of .04 centimeters. Ball bearings with diameters that are too small or too large are undesirable. In order to test the claim that μ = 0.50 centimeters, perform a two-tailed hypothesis test at the 5% level of significance. Assume that a random sample of 25 gave a mean diameter of 0.51 centimeters. Perform a hypothesis test (6 step procedure outlined in class) and state your decision.
Brief Solutions
1. H0: μ = 52
Ha: μ > 52
α = .05, zcritical = 1.65
z* = 1.78 (This test statistic lies in the Rejection Region for Ho.)
Reject H0. Based on this one sample of size 100 with a one-tailed test on the right and α = .05 , it seems as though we can not believe the bookstore’s claim
that