REQUIREMENT FOR EXAM

HYPOTHESIS TESTS ABOUT µ: 𝝈 KNOWN

1. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, all workers in America who had a bachelor’s degree
and were employed earned an average of $1038 a week in 2010. A recent sample of 400 American
workers who have a bachelor’s degree showed that they earn an average of $1060 per week.
Suppose that the population standard deviation of such earnings is $160.

a. Find the p-value for the test of hypothesis with the alternative hypothesis that the current mean
weekly earning of American workers who have a bachelor’s degree is higher than $1038. Will you reject
the null hypothesis at α = .025?

2. A telephone company claims that the mean duration of all long-distance phone calls made by its
residential customers is 10 minutes. A random sample of 100 long-distance calls made by its
residential customers taken from the records of this company showed that the mean duration of
calls for this sample is 9.20 minutes. The population standard deviation is known to be 3.80 minutes.

a. Find the p-value for the test that the mean duration of all long-distance calls made by residential
customers of this company is different from 10 minutes. If based on this p-value, would you reject the
null hypothesis? Explain. What if α = .05?

b. Test the hypothesis of part a using the critical-value approach and α = .02

3. Records in a three-county area show that in the last few years, Girl Scouts sold an average of 47.93
boxes of cookies per year per girl scout, with a population standard deviation of 8.45 boxes per year.
Fifty randomly selected Girl Scouts from the region sold an average of 46.54 boxes this year. Scout
leaders are concerned that the demand for Girl Scout cookies may have decreased.

a. Test at a 10% significance level whether the average number of boxes of cookies sold by all Girl Scouts
in the three-county area is lower than the historical average of 47.93.

4. A study claims that all homeowners in a town spend an average of 8 hours or more on house
cleaning and gardening during a weekend. A researcher wanted to check if this claim is true. A
random sample of 20 homeowners taken by this researcher showed that they spend an average of
7.68 hours on such chores during a weekend. The population of such times for all homeowners in
this town is normally distributed with the population standard deviation of 2.1 hours.

a. Using a 1% significance level, can you conclude that the claim that all homeowners spend an average
of 8 hours or more on such chores during a weekend is false? Use both approaches.

b. Make the test of part a using a 2.5% significance level. Is your decision different from the one in part
a? Comment on the results of parts a and b.
HYPOTHESIS TESTS ABOUT µ: 𝝈 NOT KNOWN

1. According to an estimate, the average age at first marriage for women in the United States was 26.1
years in 2010 (Time, March 21, 2011). A recent sample of 60 women from New Jersey who got
married for the first time this year showed that their average age at first marriage was 27.2 years
with a standard deviation of 3.5 years. Using a 2.5% significance level and the critical-value
approach, can you conclude that the average age for women in New Jersey who got married for the
first time this year is higher than 26.1 years? Find the range for the p-value for this test. What will
your conclusion be using this p-value range and α = .025?

2. The mean balance of all checking accounts at a bank on December 31, 2011, was $850. A random
sample of 55 checking accounts taken recently from this bank gave a mean balance of $780 with a
standard deviation of $230. Using a 1% significance level, can you conclude that the mean balance
of such accounts has decreased during this period? Explain your conclusion in words. What if α =
.025?

3. According to an estimate, the average price of homes in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, was
$650,000 in 2011 (USA TODAY, August 11, 2011). A recent random sample of 70 homes from
Martha’s Vineyard showed that their average price is $674,000 with a standard deviation of
$94,500. Using a 2% significance level, can you conclude that the current average price of homes in
Martha’s Vineyard is different from $650,000? Use both the p-value and critical-value approaches.

4. The manager of a restaurant in a large city claims that waiters working in all restaurants in his city
earn an average of $150 or more in tips per week. A random sample of 25 waiters selected from
restaurants of this city yielded a mean of $139 in tips per week with a standard deviation of $28.
Assume that the weekly tips for all waiters in this city have a normal distribution.

a. Using a 1% significance level, can you conclude that the manager’s claim is true? Use both
approaches.

HYPOTHESIS TESTS ABOUT PROPORTION

1. 9.87 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 11% of children in the United States lived with at least
one grandparent in 2009 (USA TODAY, June 30, 2011). Suppose that in a recent sample of 1600
children, 224 were found to be living with at least one grandparent. At a 5% significance level, can
you conclude that the proportion of all children in the United States who currently live with at least
one grandparent is higher than .11? Use both the p-value and the critical-value approaches.

2. 9.89 According to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted during June 24–28, 2011, 55% of the
American adults polled said that owning a home is a very important part of the American Dream
 (The New York Times, June 30, 2011). Suppose this result was true for the population of all American
adults in 2011. In a recent poll of 1800 American adults, 61% said that owning a home is a very
important part of the American Dream. Perform a hypothesis test to determine whether it is
reasonable to conclude that the percentage of all American adults who currently hold this opinion is
higher than 55%. Use a 2% significance level, and use both the p-value and the critical-value
approaches.

3. 9.91 According to a Pew Research Center nationwide telephone survey of American adults
conducted by phone between March 15 and April 24, 2011, 75% of adults said that college
education has become too expensive for most people and they cannot afford it (Time, May 30,
2011). Suppose that this result is true for the 2011 population of American adults. In a recent poll of
1600 American adults, 1160 said that college education has become too expensive for most people
and they cannot afford it. Using a 1% significance level, perform a test of hypothesis to determine
whether the current percentage of American adults who will say that college education has become
too expensive for most people and they cannot afford it is lower than 75%. Use both the p-value and
the critical-value approaches.

4. 9.93 A food company is planning to market a new type of frozen yogurt. However, before marketing
this yogurt, the company wants to find what percentage of the people like it. The company’s
management has decided that it will market this yogurt only if at least 35% of the people like it. The
company’s research department selected a random sample of 400 persons and asked them to taste
this yogurt. Of these 400 persons, 112 said they liked it.

a. Testing at a 2.5% significance level, can you conclude that the company should market this yogurt?

5. 9.95Brooklyn Corporation manufactures DVDs. The machine that is used to make these DVDs is
known to produce not more than 5% defective DVDs. The quality control inspector selects a sample
of 200 DVDs each week and inspects them for being good or defective. Using the sample proportion,
the quality control inspector tests the null hypothesis p = .05 against the alternative hypothesis p =
.05, where p is the proportion of DVDs that are defective. She always uses a 2.5% significance level.
If the null hypothesis is rejected, the production process is stopped to make any necessary
adjustments. A recent sample of 200 DVDs contained 17 defective DVDs.

a. Using a 2.5% significance level, would you conclude that the production process should be stopped to
make necessary adjustments?

b. Perform the test of part a using a 1% significance level. Is your decision different from the one in part
a?