ISED 160   NOTES ABOUT HOMEWORK, ANNOUNCEMENTS, ETC.

 

Assigned on:

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(Some old notes have been removed for easier viewing of new material)

 

In case you lose your  z table, here it is for reference:

 

 

Th 9/13

Before starting Test #1, I asked you to think about using the table backwards to find areas if you are given a certain amount of area in the middle of the distribution. For instance, if 80% of the distribution is in the center equally about the mean (40% directly to the right and left of center), then 10% of the distribution is in each tail (since 1-0.80=0.20 and half of 0.20 is 0.10). So if you look up 0.10 as an area, you see that the z value that goes with it is 1.28 (positive and negative values mark each tail on either side of the mean). Make a picture to see where all of these values are.

We call these z values that mark a predetermined area in the center “critical values”, which I will denote by z* . We call the area in the center (80% as in the above example) the confidence level.

Work on knowing how to find the z* or critical values using the z table backwards. As another example, find the z* for the confidence level of 85%. Answer: Since this area is in the middle of the distribution about the mean, 1-85% or 15% is outside of this center range, so 7.5% area is in each tail of the distribution. The closest area in the table to 7.5% or 0.075 is 0.0749 which gives a z value of –1.44. So the z* are –1.44 and +1.44.

HOMEWORK (due on Tuesday):

Find the critical values for the following situations (make and label a picture for each):

1. Where you have a confidence level of 90%  (% of data centered about the mean), what are the z* or critical values?

2. Where you have a confidence level of 95%  (% of data centered about the mean), what are the z* or critical values?

3. Where you have a confidence level of 99%  (% of data centered about the mean), what are the z* or critical values?

 

T 9/18

We have been dealing with normal (bell-shaped) distributions so far. We now tackle the question of what to do when you do not have a normal population. A sample is a portion of the population, usually chosen to be as unbiased and representative of the population as possible. Many times it is too inconvenient or costly to poll a whole population, so we look for the mean of the smallest sample we can use that best approximates the population mean without giving too much anticipated error.

     For samples, z=(x-`)/s, where ` is the mean of the sample and s is the std. deviation of the sample.

     For populations, z=(x-)/, where  is the mean of the population and s is the std. deviation of the population.

     Now the nice part! If we look at a population and decide on a sample size n, then we can form a new distribution (the SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION) made up of all possible samples of that size n that can be taken from the population. (There are lots of possible samples, even when the population is relatively small!). Each sample of size n has its own mean and std. deviation, which are probably not equal to those of other samples or to those of the population itself. But what can be shown (not in this class because it involves too much theory and calculation) is that if you take the average of the means from every possible sample (that is, a mean of the means!), it will be exactly equal to the mean of the population. Further, the SAMPLING DISTRIBUTION made up of all the possible samples of size n will be NORMAL in shape, despite the fact that the population it came from may not have been normal. So you see, the work you have done so far to learn how to navigate around the normal distribution has not been in vain! And if you were worrying about how you were going to find the area under the curve for non-normal distributions, worry no more.

     However, there is a price to pay for such a beautiful result (isn’t there always?). The standard deviation of the sampling distribution is not the same as the standard deviation of the population. It varies based on how large a sample size n that you chose in the first place. The std. deviation of the sampling distribution is  . The larger the sample size, the less error you have in using the sample mean to estimate the population mean. Because of this difference, our old relationship of z=(particular value – mean)/std.deviation will have the somewhat new appearance:

 

It is the same relationship we have been using up to this point, but: 1. the particular value is not just any x, it is the mean of a particular sample , and 2. the mean is µ, since the mean of the sampling distribution is the same as mean of the population, and 3. the std. deviation of the sampling distribution is .

     We will talk (for sampling distributions), about confidence, error, and sample size. These topics can be found in any basic statistics book.

OUR FORMULAS ( the first and therefore the second of which I derived in class...the third, which is the sample size formula, can be derived from the error by solving for n):

Confidence Intervals give an estimate of the population mean given a particular sample mean, and take into account how confident you are in using a particular sample average  as an estimate for m , where interval is marked by the following critical values for the most common levels of confidence:

For 90% confidence use z*=1.645, for 95% use z*=1.96, for 99% use z*=2.576

 

In class, we looked at the following problem:

A study discloses that 100 randomly selected readers devoted on average 126.5 minutes to the Sunday edition of the paper. Similar studies have shown a population standard deviation of 26.4 can be used. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the true average number of minutes that readers spend on the Sunday edition.

The interval, using the formula above, was  

126.5-1.96()< <126.5+1.96(

126.5-5.17< <126.5+5.17     that is,   121.33<  <  131.67

 

Look at the following and note the changes to the interval:

1. If we take a smaller sample size, say n=25, then see how the error grows to 10.35:

126.5-1.96()< <126.5+1.96()

so that 126.5-10.35< <126.5+10.35, or 116.15 <  <  136.85

 

2. If we take a larger sample size, say n=350, then

126.5-1.96()< <126.5+1.96()

so that 126.5-2.77< <126.5+2.77, or 123.73 <  <  129.27

 

3. How about if we go back to the original problem, and insist on a larger confidence level, say 99%, then

126.5-2.576()< <126.5+2.576()

so that 126.5-6.80< <126.5+6.80, or 119.70 <  <  133.30

See how the interval is now wider, and thus not as helpful an estimate!

 

HOMEWORK due Thursday (will be collected):

For each of the following, use the original in-class example about newspaper reading,

1. Change 95% confidence to 90% confidence and note the effect on the error and the width of the interval (repeat what we did in class with a new z*).

2. Change 95% confidence to 80% confidence and note the effect on the error and the width of the interval. Use z*= 1.28 from previous examples.

3. Starting with the original problem and the 95% confidence level, change the sample size to 1000 and note the effect on the error and the width of the interval.

4. Starting with the original problem and the 95% confidence level, change the sample size to 40 and note the effect on the error and the width of the interval.

5. In general, from looking at the examples and your work:

   a. Does the error get bigger or smaller as you reduce sample size?

   b. Does the confidence interval get wider (less exact estimate) or narrower (closer estimate) around   as we take a smaller sample size?

   c. Does the error get bigger or smaller as you reduce the confidence level (%)?

   d. Does the confidence interval get wider or narrower around  as we take a smaller confidence level?

Th 9/20

Last homework’s answers:

1. 122.16 to 130.84    2. 123.12 to 129.88    3. error is 1.64 so 124.86 to 128.14

4. error=8.18 so 118.32 to 134.68   5. a. bigger, b. wider  c. smaller   d. narrower

We talked about the dynamics of the situations involving confidence and error:

THE MORE CONFIDENT YOU WISH TO BE, THE LESS YOU HAVE TO BE CONFIDENT OF! You might have been thinking about why you wouldn’t just want to always pick the highest confidence level possible (like 99.9999%!), but if you look at any problem dealing with confidence intervals, you can see that when you pick a higher confidence level, you have more error and hence a worse estimate of the population mean. Because of this trade-off, you try to pick the best level of confidence to balance how much error in the estimate will still give you a good idea of . You will find that there is no such trade-off when changing the sample size. A larger sample size gives you a tighter interval about the population mean without decreasing confidence in that interval. But the drawback is that sometimes you do not have the money or time to allow you to take a larger sample and you have to settle for the results that you can afford to pay for! Answers in statistics are not “right” or “wrong” as general mathematical questions usually are...they are estimates, or educated guesses, that help you to make decisions. You will have short-answer questions on your next test which address these dynamics in a general way, and you need to have looked at problems and thought about how it works before you can answer these questions properly.

I will quiz you on confidence intervals on Tuesday.

Some homework problems to be turned in are below, and also some additional practice problems if you wish to try them for yourself (answers are included for the practice problems).

 

HOMEWORK PROBLEMS TO BE TURNED IN ON TUESDAY:

 

1. In problem 1 of the in-class exercises (where we had a population std. deviation of 12.2 and an average of 96.4 patient admissions per day), how large a sample of days must we choose in order to ensure that our estimate of the actual daily number of hospital admissions is off by no more than five admissions per day?

 

2. In problem 3 of the in-class exercises, in thirty-five attempts it took a locksmith an average of 9 minutes to break the code of a certain kind of lock. Assuming that 2.9 is a reasonable std. deviation from previous attempts, construct a 95% confidence interval for the true average time that it takes the locksmith to open this kind of lock. (What has changed from the in-class problem where we had 99% confidence, and is it a reasonable change for a better outcome?).

 

3. Suppose that we want to estimate the average speed of cars traveling on a highway, and we want to be able to assert with 99% confidence that the error of our estimate, the mean speed of a random sample of these cars, will be at most 3 miles per hour. How large a sample will we need if it can be assumed that we can use a std. deviation of 7.1 miles per hour from previous studies?

 

4. A random sample of 300 telephone calls made to the office of a large corporation is timed and reveals that the average call is 6.48 minutes long. Assume a std. deviation of 1.92 minutes can be used.

   a. What can the office manager say with 99% confidence about the maximum error if 6.48 minutes is used as an estimate of the true length of telephone calls made to the office?

   b. What can the office manager say with 90% confidence about the maximum error?

 

*********************************

OPTIONAL PRACTICE PROBLEMS (will not be collected):

 

1. In problem #1 of the in-class exercises above, how large a sample of days must we choose in order to ensure our estimate is off by no more than 2 daily admissions of patients?

Answer: z*=1.645, std.dev.=12.2, E=2 so n=101

 

2. In problem five of the in-class exercises above, find a 90% confidence interval for the true number of hours per week that teens watch T.V. if we use a sample of size 111 that yields an average of 35.8

Answer: z*=1.645, std.dev.=3.2, n=111, x=35.8 so about 35.3 to 36.3.

 

3. Dr. Paul Oswiecmiski wants to estimate the mean serum HDL cholesterol of all 20-29 year old males. How many male subjects would he need in order to estimate the mean serum HDL of all 20-29 year old males within 1.5 points and using 95% confidence? Assume that a std. deviation of 12.5 from previous studies is reasonable.

Answer: z*=1.96, std. dev.=12.5 and E=1.5 so n=267

 

4. Given the word problem take variations of it to see what happens to error and the interval as numbers are adjusted:

A large hospital finds that in 50 randomly selected days it had on average 96.4 patient admissions per day, assuming a std. deviation of 12.2 from previous studies.

 

a.     Construct a 90% confidence interval for the actual daily average number of hospital admissions per day,

 

b.     Construct a 99% confidence interval for the actual daily average number of hospital admissions per day,

 

c.     Using the 90% interval you constructed, observed what happens to the interval if you change the sample size to 300,

 

d.     Using the 90% interval you constructed, observed what happens to the interval if you change the sample size to 20.

 

Note the effects in general of changing confidence and changing sample size on the interval width.

 

ANSWERS: a. 96.4-2.84 and 96.4+2.84 b. 96.4-4.44 and 96.4+4.44 c. 96.4-1.16 and 96.4+1.16 d. 96.4-4.49 and 96.4+4.49

 

5. A Gallup poll asked 500 randomly selected Americans, "How often do you bathe each week?". Results of the survey indicated an average of 6.9 times per week. Using a population std. deviation of 2.8 days, construct a 99% confidence interval for the number of times Americans bathed each week.

Answer: Using the formula for confidence intervals, n=500, s=2.8, critical z=2.576,we get an error of 0.32 times, so 6.58<m<7.22. In 99 samples out of 100, we would expect that our estimate of the true number of times that Americans bathe per week is anywhere from 6.58 times to 7.22 times.

 

6. In the problem above, how small a sample can we get away with without being off by more than 1 time bathing in our estimate?

Answer: Using the formula for sample size, critical z=2.576, s=2.8, E=1, we get n=52.02, so if we ask 53 Americans how often they bathe, we will be confident 99% of the time that 6.9 times per week as an estimate of the true number of times that Americans bathe per week will not be off by more than 1 time.

 

7. In problem 5 above, what could we say with 80% confidence about the error in using 6.9 times per week as an estimate of the true average number of times Americans bathe?

Answer: Using the formula for error, n=500, s=2.8, critical z=1.282, so we get E=0.16. That is, in 80 samples out of 100 we would expect the number of times that Americans bathe per week could be estimated by 6.9 times and be off by no more than 0.16 times in either direction. (The less confident you are willing to be in your estimate, the better estimate you get).

 

Make variations of the problems above for yourself, such as changing confidence or sample size, or error, and see what effect the change has on the answers.

 

T 9/25

We are now moving into significance tests. The burden is being shifted from the middle of the distribution (which was interesting in confidence intervals) to the tails of the distribution (which are interesting in significance tests). The middle area, or percentage, was the confidence level. The area in the tails is now referred to as the significance level, referred to as alpha, or (sigh...another Greek symbol!). This is because we will not consider a distance from center to be significant until it goes past the critical z values, the  that mark the spots that are defined by the confidence and significance levels. A significance test involves several stages: hypotheses, level of significance, data and calculations, decision and conclusion.

 

HYPOTHESES:

The null hypothesis, symbolized by    is what is accepted as true for the population mean until evidence to the contrary is found.

 

The alternate hypothesis, symbolized by    is what the investigator or researcher is trying to show (always relating to the number used in the null hypothesis).

 

LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE:

This is  which is given in the statement of the word problem, and it tells where one stops believing the null hypothesis and starts accepting the alternate hypothesis instead.

 

DATA AND CALCULATIONS:

Once a sample is taken, it will be used to gauge the veracity of the number in the null hypothesis. To be able to assess this, we must standardize the sample value so that we can see how many std. deviations it is away from the proposed center (proposed by the null hypothesis) and therefore be able to look up the area (or probability of occurrence) associated with it.

DECISION:

We will then compare this probability above with the alpha (level of significance) that has been set, to make our decision about whether or not we believe the null hypothesis in the light of the evidence that the sample has provided.

 

CONCLUSION:

You must state what you have found from the sample’s evidence, or lack thereof. Write a grammatically complete sentence with the following elements: Tell

1. if you have “found evidence” or “not found evidence” against the null hypothesis,

2. about what (what was the subject of the investigation?),

3.  with respect to what number (what was the number in question in the hypotheses?).

 

***

 

We will be doing whole significance tests soon, but first, we must take a more careful look at each part.

 

We looked at an example of a full two-sided sigificance test. This is where we care if the sample is above or below the true population mean. We will look at one-sided examples next week. An example of a two-sided significance test is as follows: If the null hypothesis is that the mean of a population is 35 and the alternate hypothesis is that the mean of the population is not 35 (within a certain amount of acceptable error) and a level of significance is given as 0.05 (the area outside of the confidence intervals from last time about the mean) and you take a sample and standardize it to get z=2.25, does it give enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis and therefore accept the alternate hypothesis?

 

One way of determination is to compare the sample z to the critical value of z. The critical values come from the alpha value. That is, if you look up an area of alpha (level of significance) divided by 2 =0.025  (this is how much goes in each tail of the distribution) you see a critical z* of 1.96. So if you get a sample z that is further away from the mean, you have evidence to reject the null hypothesis, as in this case.

 

Another way of determination is to compare the alpha area with the p-value area. The p area is the probability that you would get a value as far away or farther away from the center as the sample value you got. For a sample of 2.25, the area outside of that would be 0.0122. So for a two sided test such as this, just as the two tails add to alpha in the above problem, you consider that the two tails would have .0122 in them based on the sample z. Then the p value is 0.0122+0.0122=0.0244. If p<alpha, you reject the null hypothesis and if p>alpha, then you accept it. Here, 0.0244<0.05  so we again reject the null hypothesis.

 

The following are two example problems: Tell using the methods described above if you will accept or reject the null hypothesis:

1. The alternate hypothesis is two-sided, =0.02, sample z=2.20.

2. The alternate hypothesis is two-sided, =0.01, sample z=2.73

 

Answers: In the first situation, half of alpha goes into each tail and the z value that marks the spot such that there is 0.01 area to the left of it is about –2.325 (or –2.32 or –2.33 if you prefer). Since the sample z is closer to center than this, we choose to Accept the null hypothesis. If we wished to find the p value, look up the area for z=2.20 and find 0.0139. The p value is then the area from the upper and lower tails, that is, 0.0139+0.0139=0.0278. Since p>alpha, we again Accept the null hypothesis.

     In the second situation above, half of alpha goes into each tail and the z that marks the spot such that there is 0.005 to its left is about –2.575 and +2.575 in the right tail of the distribution. Since our sample z of 2.73 is farther away from center than 2.575, we Reject the null hypothesis.  The p value for z=2.73 is 0.0032+0.0032=0.0064, which on its own is a rather small probability and gives strong evidence against the null hypothesis. But since we have an alpha of 0.01 and p<alpha, we again have cause to Reject the null hypothesis.

 

I will give you a table of critical values so that you do not need to look them up using the table backwards each time you want to perform a test. On Thursday, I will also be giving problems in class as exercises for you to work on with others and those who attend will probably feel fairly comfortable with the ideas before they leave. Those who do not attend will find it difficult to catch up, and will be confronted with a test on it soon after they show up to class again! So I strongly suggest that you come on Thursday. There is no formal homework due on Thursday, but to look at your notes and those I have put above and think about any questions you have that can assist your learning.

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF A WORD PROBLEM TURNED INTO A SIGNIFICANCE TEST (THIS IS WHAT WE WILL DO AFTER WE BECOME PROFICIENT IN THE METHODS OF ACCEPTING AND REJECTING HYPOTHESES:

Grant is in the market to buy a three-year-old Corvette. Before shopping for the car, he wants to determine what he should expect to pay. According to the blue book, the average price of such a car is $37,500. Grant thinks it is different from this price in his neighborhood, so he visits 15 neighborhood dealers online and finds and average price of $38,246.90. Assuming a population std. deviation of $4100, test his claim at the 0.10 level of significance.

Hypotheses

Ho:=37500 

Hi:  not equal to 37500 

Level of Significance

=0.10

Data and calculations

The sample z comes from the sample data standardized by the formula:

Next, we determine whether or not we have sufficient evidence to reject the null hypothesis:

Decision:

Method 1: For 0.05 of alpha going in each tail, we find a critical z value of 1.645 and the sample z is not as far out from the theoretical population mean. Method 2: Look up sample z of 0.71 on the original z table and find p value of 2(0.2389)=0.4778 > alpha of 0.10. By either method, we find that we do not have evidence to reject the null hypothesis, so we accept it.

Now we form a sentence of conclusion for what we have found:

Conclusion

Grant does not have any evidence that the mean price of a 3 yr. old Corvette is different from $37,500 in his neighborhood.

 

Th 9/27

Keep in mind that you have your next test on Thursday 10/4.

LECTURE NOTES:

I gave a handout which cannot be reproduced here satisfactorily, recapping the symbols we are using and their meanings. Also included was the following abbreviated table of critical values, so you do not have to look them up on the table each time you want to do a problem. The top row represents the area in either the left or right tail of the distribution, and the bottom row represents the positive or negative critical value. Refer to it as you look at the example problems below:

 

0.25

0.20

0.15

0.10

0.05

0.025

0.02

0.01

0.005

0.0025

0.001

0.0005

0.674

0.841

1.036

1.282

1.645

1.960

2.054

2.326

2.576

2.807

3.091

3.291

 

We tried some two-sided and one-sided examples of significance tests in class, using both method 1 and method 2. As the one-sided problems were different than the two-sided ones we focused on last time, here is an example:

Ho: m=45 and the alternate hypothesis is one-sided H1: m>45 , =0.02, sample z=1.96

Conclusion: If you have a one-sided alternate hypothesis ( that is where m is > or < a number instead of “not equal to”), you don’t take half of alpha as we did in the two-sided problems, you put it all into the tail of interest. You do not add two tails to get the p value, you only use the area that you looked up for the one tail. In the situation above, we only care about values that stray too far above what is claimed to be the center. This is a one-sided test unlike the other two situations in the previous session’s notes. By method 1, you put all of alpha into the right hand tail. The z value with 0.02 area to its right is about +2.054 from the table above. Since 1.96 is closer to center, we got a routine sample (one that would happen 98% of the time) so there is nothing strange about the center being where it is claimed to be. We Accept the null hypothesis. By method 2, the p value for z=1.96 is 0.0250 using the table.Since p is > alpha, we again choose to Accept the null hypothesis.

 

****************

 

Things to do for homework before Tuesday:

 

1. Read the solutions to the additional In-class problems below and make sure you understand them.

 

2. Read the Example problems below with answers and see if you understand them (or if I have inadvertently made any mistakes, it is your job to find them and talk about them on Tuesday). These will not be collected, but are for your own benefit to practice.

 

3. Do the Homework problems below (with pictures of the distributions as in class) and they will be collected and talked about on Tuesday.

 

4. Make note that you will have Test #2 a week from today as scheduled! The format is below. You should make sure you know how to do each kind of problem and bring questions on Tuesday.

 

***************

Additional In-class problems:

1. H0:  = 20 and H1:  not equal to 20  and =0.05 sample z= 1.75

Answer: Method 1: Half of alpha, 0.025 goes into each tail since the alternate hypothesis is two-sided. The critical values for 0.025 are + or – 1.960 and 1.75 is closer to the center than this, so accept the null hypothesis.

Method 2:The area to the left of 1.75 is 0.0401 so the p value is the sum of the left and right tails, 0.0401+0.0401=0.0802<0.05 alpha , so accept the null hypothesis.

 

2. H0: =12.2 and H1: <12.2  and =0.05 sample z= -1.70

Answer: Method 1: All of alpha, 0.05 goes into the left tail of the distribution since the alternate hypothesis only pertains to values <12.2. The critical value for 0.05 is -1.645 and -1.70 is farther from center than this, so reject the null hypothesis.

Method 2: The area to the left of -1.70 is the p value from the original z table is 0.0446<0.05 alpha so reject the null hypothesis.

 

3. H0: =15 and H1: >15  and =0.01 sample z= 2.43

Answer: Method #1: All of alpha 0.01 goes into the right tail of the distribution since the alternate hypothesis only pertains to values >15. The critical value for 0.01 is 2.326 and 2.43 is farther from center than this, so reject the null hypothesis.

Method #2: The area to the right of 2.43 is 0.0075 so the p value from the original z table is 0.0075<0.01 alpha so reject the null hypothesis.

 

More example problems

Since the “not equal to sign is not printing out well, it is written out for the two-sided problems:

1. H0: =11 and H1:  not equal to 11  and =0.01 sample z= 2.67

Answer: Half of alpha, 0.005 goes into each tail since the alternate hypothesis is two-sided. The critical values for 0.005 are + or - 2.576 and 2.67 is farther away from center than this, so reject the null hypothesis.

The area to the left of 2.67 is 0.0038 so the p value is the sum of the left and right tails, 0.0038+0.0038=0.0076<0.01 alpha , so reject the null hypothesis.

 

2. H0: =265 and H1: <265  and =0.01 sample z= -2.25

Answer: All of alpha, 0.01 goes into the left tail of the distribution since the alternate hypothesis only pertains to values <265. The critical value for 0.01 is -2.326 and -2.25 is closer to center than this, so accept the null hypothesis.

The area to the left of -2.25 is the p value 0.0122>0.01 alpha so accept the null hypothesis.

 

3. H0: =35 and H1: >35  and =0.05 sample z= 2.23

Answer: All of alpha 0.05 goes into the right tail of the distribution since the alternate hypothesis only pertains to values >35. The critical value for 0.05 is 1.645 and 2.23 is farther from center than this, so reject the null hypothesis.

The area to the right of 2.23 is 0.0129 so the p value is 0.0129<0.05 alpha so reject the null hypothesis.

 

4. H0: =1.23 and H1:  not equal to 1.23  and =0.02 sample z= -2.45

Answer: Half of alpha, 0.01, is put into each of the left and right tails of the distribution since the alternate hypothesis pertains to values not equal to 1.23, that is, both greater than and less than 1.23. The critical values are + or - 2.326 and -2.45 is farther away from center than this, so reject the null hypothesis.

The area to the left of -2.45 is 0.0071 and to the right of +2.45 is the same, so the p value is 0.0071+0.0071=0.0142<0.02 alpha so reject the null hypothesis.

 

5. H0: =0.045 and H1: >0.045  and =0.005 sample z= 2.06

Answer: All of alpha, 0.005, is put into the right tail of the distribution due to the alternate hypothesis. The critical value for 0.005 is 2.576 and 2.06 is closer to center than this, so accept the null hypothesis.

The area to the right of 2.06 is 0.0197 so the p value is 0.0197>0.005 alpha so accept the null hypothesis.

 

6. H0: =4500 and H1: <4500  and =0.025 sample z= -1.83

Answer: All of alpha is put into the left tail of the distribution due to the alternate hypothesis. The critical value for 0.025 is -1.96 and -1.83 is closer to center than this, so accept the null hypothesis.

The area to the left of -1.83 is 0.0336 so the p value is 0.0336>0.025 alpha so accept the null hypothesis.

 

Homework problems (due Tuesday): Make a picture for each and do both methods 1 and 2 for each as we did in the in-class work (the pictures cannot be shown here). The “not equal to” symbol is not printing well, so it is written out!:

 

1. Ho: =15, H1: <15, = 0.02, sample z= -2.5

 

2. Ho:  = 0.54, H1 :  is not equal to 0.54, =0.10, sample z= -1.45

 

3. Ho: =250, H1 :  > 250, = 0.05, sample z= 1.84

 

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Test #2 format for Thursday 10/04 (bring any questions you might have on Tuesday! Lots of practice problems are above over the last two weeks of notes. ):

 

Problem 1: Know how to find the z* or critical values using the z table backwards. For example, find the z* for the confidence level of 82%. Since this area is in the middle of the distribution about the mean, 18% is outside of this range, so 9% is in each tail of the distribution. The closest area in the table to 9% is 0.0901 which gives a z value of –1.34. So the z* are –1.34 and +1.34.

 

Problem 2: you will have some short answer questions on sampling distributions and the effect of changes to sample size and confidence on error and confidence intervals. (For example, what is the effect on the error in using the sample mean to estimate the population mean if you take a smaller sample size? It gets bigger).

 

Problems 3, 4, and 5: you will have at least one each of word problems dealing with confidence intervals, error and sample size, not necessarily in that order (formulas will be provided and the critical values for 90,95,99% will also be provided).

 

Problem 6: you will have about 2 or 3 situations to determine whether you will accept or reject the null hypothesis using method 1 of comparing z values (sample z and critical z).

 

Problem 7: you will have about 2 or 3 situations to determine whether you will accept or reject the null hypothesis using method 2 of comparing areas (p value and alpha).

 

T 10/02

We went over the homework, talked about other problems for the test, and then looked at two full word problem significance tests to prepare for after your test. Some old and unclaimed homework is in a folder outside my office so please pick it up if it will help you to study.

Homework is to study for your test. Look over the last couple weeks of notes above for examples.