Chapter 10

Section 3
Hypothesis Tests for a
Population Mean in Practice

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Chapter 10 Section 3
Learning objectives
1

Test hypotheses about a population mean with

unknown

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Chapter 10 Section 3
In the previous section, we assumed that the
population standard deviation, , was known
This is not a realistic assumption
There is a parallel between Chapters 9 and 10
Sections 9.1 and 10.2 solving the problems
assuming that was known
Sections 9.2 and 10.3 solving the problem
assuming that was not known

not being known is a much more practical

assumption
Sullivan Fundamentals of Statistics 2nd Edition Chapter 10 Section 3 Slide 3 of 14

Chapter 10 Section 3
The parallel between Confidence Intervals and
Hypothesis Tests carries over here too
For Confidence Intervals
We estimate the population standard deviation by
the sample standard deviation s
We use the Students t-distribution with n-1 degrees
of freedom

For Hypothesis Tests, we do the same

Use for s
Use the Students t for the normal
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Chapter 10 Section 3
Thus instead of the test statistic knowing
x 0
z0
/ n

we calculate a test statistic using s

x 0
t
s/ n

This is the appropriate test statistic to use when

is unknown

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Chapter 10 Section 4
We can perform our hypotheses for tests of a
population proportion in the same way as when
the sample standard deviation is known
Two-tailed

Left-tailed

Right-tailed

H0: = 0

H0: = 0

H0: = 0

H1: 0

H1: < 0

H1: > 0

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Chapter 10 Section 3
The process for a hypothesis test of a mean,
when is unknown is
Set up the problem with a null and alternative
hypotheses
Collect the data and compute the sample mean
Compute the test statistic
x 0
t
s/ n

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Chapter 10 Section 3
Either the Classical and the P-value approach
can be applied to determine the significance
Classical approach

P-value approach

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Chapter 10 Section 3
There are thus only differences between this
process and the one using the normal
distribution, covered in Section 10.2
We use the sample standard deviation s instead of
the population standard deviation
We use the Students t-distribution, with n-1 degrees
of freedom, instead of the normal distribution

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Chapter 10 Section 3
An example (the same one
one as
as in
in Section
Section 10.2)
10.2)
A gasoline manufacturer wants
wants to
to make
make sure
sure that
the
in their
gasoline
is at is
least
87.0 87.0
thatoctane
the octane
in their
gasoline
at least

The testing organization takes a sample

sample of
of size
size 40
40
The sample standard deviation is 0.5
The sample mean octane is 86.94
86.94

Our null and alternative hypotheses

H0: Mean octane = 87
HA: Mean octane < 87
= 0.05
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Chapter 10 Section 3
Do we reject the null hypothesis?
86.94 is 0.06 lower than 87.0
The standard error is (0.5 / 40) = 0.08
0.06 is 0.75 standard error less
The critical t value, with 39 degrees of freedom, is
1.685
1.685 < 0.75, it is not unusual

Our conclusion
We do not reject the null hypothesis
We have insufficient evidence that the true population
mean (mean octane) is less than 87.0
Sullivan Fundamentals of Statistics 2nd Edition Chapter 10 Section 3 Slide 11 of 14

Chapter 10 Section 3
Comparing using the classical approach

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Chapter 10 Section 3
Comparing using the P-value approach

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Summary: Chapter 10 Section 3

A hypothesis test of means, with unknown, has
the same general structure as a hypothesis test
of means with known
Any one of our three methods can be used, with
the following two changes to all the calculations
Use the sample standard deviation s in place of the
population standard deviation
Use the Students t-distribution in place of the normal
distribution

Sullivan Fundamentals of Statistics 2nd Edition Chapter 10 Section 3 Slide 14 of 14