9.4 Full Hypothesis Test Examples

It is believed that a stock price for a particular company will grow at a rate of $5 per week with a standard deviation of $1. An investor believes the stock won’t grow as quickly. The changes in stock price is recorded for ten weeks and are as follows: $4, $3, $2, $3, $1, $7, $2, $1, $1, $2. Perform a hypothesis test using a 5% level of significance. State the null and alternative hypotheses, sta…

A company records the mean time of employees working in a day. The mean comes out to be 475 minutes, with a standard deviation of 45 minutes. A manager recorded times of 20 employees. The times of working were (frequencies are in parentheses) 460(3); 465(2); 470(3); 475(1); 480(6); 485(3); 490(2).

Conduct a hypothesis test using a 2.5% level of significance to determine if the mean time is more th…

The National Institute of Standards and Technology provides exact data on conductivity properties of materials. Following are conductivity measurements for 11 randomly selected pieces of a particular type of glass.

1.11; 1.07; 1.11; 1.07; 1.12; 1.08; .98; .98; 1.02; .95; .95
Is there convincing evidence that the average conductivity of this type of glass is greater than one? Use a significance lev…

In a study of 420,019 cell phone users, 172 of the subjects developed brain cancer. Test the claim that cell phone users developed brain cancer at a greater rate than that for non-cell phone users (the rate of brain cancer for non-cell phone users is 0.0340%). Since this is a critical issue, use a 0.005 significance level. Explain why the significance level should be so low in terms of a Type I er…

Assume H₀: μ = 9 and H_a: μ < 9. Is this a left-tailed, right-tailed, or two-tailed test?

Assume H₀: p = 0.25 and H_a: p ≠ 0.25. Is this a left-tailed, right-tailed, or two-tailed test?

Your friend claims that their mean golf score is 63. You want to show that it is higher than that. What type of test would you use?

You flip a coin and record whether it shows heads or tails. You know the probability of getting heads is 50%, but you think it is less for this particular coin. What type of test would you use?

Assume the null hypothesis states that the mean is at least 18. Is this a left-tailed, right-tailed, or two-tailed test?

Assume the null hypothesis states that the mean is equal to 88. The alternative hypothesis states that the mean is not equal to 88. Is this a left-tailed, right-tailed, or two-tailed test?

A particular brand of tires claims that its deluxe tire averages at least 50,000 miles before it needs to be replaced. From past studies of this tire, the standard deviation is known to be 8,000. A survey of owners of that tire design is conducted. From the 28 tires surveyed, the mean lifespan was 46,500 miles with a standard deviation of 9,800 miles. Using alpha = 0.05, is the data highly inconsi…

The cost of a daily newspaper varies from city to city. However, the variation among prices remains steady with a standard deviation of 20¢. A study was done to test the claim that the mean cost of a daily newspaper is $1.00. Twelve costs yield a mean cost of 95¢ with a standard deviation of 18¢. Do the data support the claim at the 1% level?

The mean number of sick days an employee takes per year is believed to be about ten. Members of a personnel department do not believe this figure. They randomly survey eight employees. The number of sick days they took for the past year are as follows: 12; 4; 15; 3; 11; 8; 6; 8. Let x = the number of sick days they took for the past year. Should the personnel team believe that the mean number is t…

Your statistics instructor claims that 60% of the students who take their Elementary Statistics class go through life feeling more enriched. For some reason that the instructor can't quite figure out, most people don't believe them. You decide to check this out on your own. You randomly survey 64 of their past Elementary Statistics students and find that 34 feel more enriched as a result of t…

Refer to Exercise 9.63. Conduct a hypothesis test to see if your decision and conclusion would change if your belief were that the brown trout’s mean I.Q. is not four.

A poll done for Newsweek found that 13% of Americans have seen or sensed the presence of an angel. A contingent doubts that the percent is really that high. It conducts its own survey. Out of 76 Americans surveyed, only two had seen or sensed the presence of an angel. As a result of the contingent’s survey, would you agree with the Newsweek poll? In complete sentences, also give three reasons why…

According to New York City's Community Health Survey, the most recent adult smoking rate is 12%. Suppose that a survey is conducted to determine this year’s rate. Nine out of 70 randomly chosen N.Y. City residents reply that they smoke. Conduct a hypothesis test to determine if the rate is still 12% or if it has decreased.

Registered nurses earned an average annual salary of $69,110. For that same year, a survey was conducted of 41 California registered nurses to determine if the annual salary is higher than $69,110 for California nurses. The sample average was $71,121 with a sample standard deviation of $7,489. Conduct a hypothesis test.

Over the past few decades, public health officials have examined the link between weight concerns and teen girls' smoking. Researchers surveyed a group of 273 randomly selected teen girls living in Massachusetts (between 12 and 15 years old). After four years the girls were surveyed again. Sixty-three said they smoked to stay thin. Is there good evidence that more than 30% of the teen girls smoke…

Previously, an organization reported that teenagers spent 4.5 hours per week, on average, on the phone. The organization thinks that, currently, the mean is higher. Fifteen randomly chosen teenagers were asked how many hours per week they spend on the phone. The sample mean was 4.75 hours with a sample standard deviation of 2.0. Conduct a hypothesis test.

At a significance level of a = 0.05, wha…

A recent survey in the N.Y. Times Almanac indicated that 48.8% of families own stock. A broker wanted to determine if this survey could be valid. They surveyed a random sample of 250 families and found that 142 owned some type of stock. At the 0.05 significance level, can the survey be considered to be accurate?

The US Department of Energy reported that 51.7% of homes were heated by natural gas. A random sample of 221 homes in Kentucky found that 115 were heated by natural gas. Does the evidence support the claim for Kentucky at the α = 0.05 level in Kentucky? Are the results applicable across the country? Why?

The Weather Underground reported that the mean amount of summer rainfall for the northeastern US is at least 11.52 inches. Ten cities in the northeast are randomly selected and the mean rainfall amount is calculated to be 7.42 inches with a standard deviation of 1.3 inches. At the α = 0.05 level, can it be concluded that the mean rainfall was below the reported average? What if α = 0.01? Assume th…

A report by the Gallup Poll found that a woman visits her doctor, on average, at most 5.8 times each year. A random sample of 20 women results in these yearly visit totals

1. 3
2. 2
3. 1
4. 3
5. 7
6. 2
7. 9
8. 4
9. 6
10. 6
11. 8
12. 0
13. 5
14. 6
15. 4
16. 2
17. 1
18. 3
19. 4
20. 1

The student academic group on a college campus claims that first-year students study at least 2.5 hours per day, on average. One Introduction to Statistics class was skeptical. The class took a random sample of 30 first-year students and found a mean study time of 137 minutes with a standard deviation of 45 minutes. At α = 0.01 level, is the student academic group’s claim correct?