Homework No.

1
Confidence Intervals and Hypotheses Testing

1. In a genetic study, a regular food was placed in each of 20 vials and the
number of flies of a particular genotype feeding on each vial was recorded.
The counts of flies were also recorded for another set of 20 vials that
contained grape fruit. The following data sets were obtained.
a. Plot separate dot diagrams for the two data sets.
b. Make a visual comparison of the two distributions with respect to their
relative locations and spreads.
c. Is there sufficient evidence to conclude that the mean number of flies is
different with each food? Use a significance level of 0.05.

No. of flies (regular food)

15 20 31 16 22 22 23 33 38 28 25 20 21 23 29 26 40 20 19 31

No. of flies (grape fruit)

6 19 0 2 11 12 13 12 5 16 2 7 13 20 18 19 19 9 9 9

2. The following data represent the scores that 50 students earned on a

college qualification test.
a. Calculate the mean and standard deviation.
b. Calculate the median and the interquartile range.
c. Construct a histogram. Comment the diagram.
d. Construct a box plot. Comment and compare to the histogram.

e. Estimate the mean score of the students with a 90% confidence

interval.

162
167
184
194
118

171
98
166
147
146

138
161
115
158
165

144
182
95
178
139

126
136
190
162
94

145
165
119
131
135

162
137
144
106
162

174
133
176
157
168

178
143
135
154
114

3. Determine the following percentiles:

a.

t .025

b.

z .01

c.

z .15

d.

t .05

e.

.01

with d.f. = 12

with d.f. = 8

with d.f. = 5

4. The breaking strength of a fiber is required to be at least 150 psi. Past

experience has indicated that the standard deviation of breaking strength is

=3

psi. A random sample of four specimens is tested, and the results

are 145, 153 and 147.

a. State the hypotheses that you think should be tested in this experiment.
b. Test these hypotheses using

=0.05 . What are your conclusions?

c. Find the P-value for the test in part (b).

d. Construct a 95% confidence interval on the mean breaking strength.

5. Packs of a certain brand of cigarettes carry the specification that the

average nicotine content is .60 milligrams per cigarette. A government
testing agency chemically analyzes a random sample of 100 of these
cigarettes and finds that the sample mean and the standard deviation are .
63 milligrams

and

.11 milligrams,

respectively.

Assuming

=.05 ,

construct a test to determine if these results provide strong evidence that

the mean nicotine content is higher than the specified value.

6. The shelf life of a carbonated beverage is of interest. Ten bottles are

randomly selected, and the following results are obtained:

108
124

124
106

Days
115
138

163
159

134
139

a. We would like to demonstrate that the mean shelf life exceeds 120
days. Set up appropriate hypotheses for investigating this claim.
b. Test these hypotheses using

=0.01 . What are your conclusions?

c. Find the P-value for the test in part (b).

d. Construct a 99% confidence interval on the mean shelf life.

7. Twenty observations on etch uniformity on silicon wafers are taken during a

qualification experiment for a plasma etcher. The data are as follows:
a. Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of

b. Test the hypothesis that

are your conclusions?

2 .

2=1.0 . Use a significance level of 5%. What

c. Discuss the normality assumption and its role in this problem.

8. Un artculo publicado en Technometrics (Vol 19, 1977) presenta los datos

siguientes sobre octanaje de varias mezclas de gasolina:
88.5,
94.2,
94.2,
90.9,

87.7,
87.8,
92.7,
89.0,

83.4,
89.9,
93.2,
96.1,

86.7,
88.3,
91.0,
93.3,

87.5, 91.5, 88.6, 100.3, 96.5, 93.3, 94.7, 91.1, 91.0,

87.6, 84.3, 86.7, 84.3, 86.7, 88.2, 90.8, 88.3, 98.8,
90.1, 93.4, 88.5, 90.1, 89.2, 88.3, 85.3, 87.9, 88.6,
91.8

a. Construya un histograma para el octanaje. Se puede considerar que el

octanaje tiene una distribucin normal? Describa la forma de la
distribucin.
b. Construya un intervalo de confianza del 92.5% para el octanaje medio
de gasolina.
c. Interprete el intervalo. Qu porcentaje de los datos se encuentran
dentro del intervalo anterior? Este porcentaje debera aproximarse al
92.5%? Explica.
d. Es posible concluir que octanaje medio de las mezclas de gasolina es
90.0? Use un nivel de significancia de 0.15.
References

G. K. Bhattacharyya and R.A. Johnson. Statistical Concepts and Methods.

D.C. Montgomery. Design and Analysis of Experiments.