Name:_________________________________________ Date:___________ Block:__________

Chapter 5
Experiments: Heating a Football?
The placekicker on a high school football team notices that he seems to kick the ball
farther when the weather is warm compared to when it is cold. Of course, there could be several
reasons for this difference maybe his leg muscles are looser when it is warm, or perhaps the
ball has less resistance as it moves through the air because warmer air is thinner. Alternatively,
perhaps the air inside the ball is warmer, increasing the pressure inside and making it better to
kick.
Of course, since all three of these conditions occur together on warm days, it is
impossible to tell which one of them is the primary cause of the improvement in kicking distance.
We say that these variables are confounded because we do not know which variable is causing
the footballs to travel farther: warm muscles, warm air outside, or warm air inside the football.
To investigate, the kicker decides to do an experiment to see if he can kick a football
farther after it has been heated compared to when it is cold. So, for this experiment, the
explanatory variable is the temperature of the football and the response variable is the distance
he kicks the balls. Unlike the experiments we designed previously, the response variable for this
experiment is numerical.
Experiment
Randomization
Blind
Control
The Experiment
The kicker will take 10 similar footballs and randomly pick 5 to be put in a refrigerator for 1
hour and the other 5 to be put in the direct sun for 1 hour. An equipment manager will place each
ball in an identical insulated box to keep its temperature as constant as possible. A ball will
randomly be selected and placed on a tee so the kicker will be blind. The kicker will kick the ball
then the distance traveled and ball temperature will be recorded.
1) What hypotheses are we interested in testing?
H0:
Ha:

2) What variables should we control?

From Statistical Reasoning in Sports 2013

Using the SRIS Applet to Simulate the Difference in Means

Here are the results from one kickers warm football experiment:
Distance Kicked in Yards (Warm Football)
61 58 63 55 60 Mean = 59.4
Distance Kicked in Yards (Cold Football)
60 52 53 57 59 Mean = 56.2
Test Statistic (warm mean cold mean) = 59.4 56.2 = 3.2 yards.
3) What does the test statistic tell us? (Hint: which performance was better?)
It is possible that the kickers ability is the same with either temperature and the difference in
performance was due to random chance. Assuming the ability is the same with either type of ball,
we can use a simulation to see how likely it will be to get a difference of 3.2 yards or more just
by random chance alone.
Use the SRIS applet to conduct the simulation.
Step 1: Visit www.whfreeman.com/SRIS or http://bcs.whfreeman.com/sris/#t_730892____
Step 2: Select the Difference in Means applet
Step 3: Enter the 5 distances with the warm football in context 1. Commas are not needed,
however, spaces are.
Step 4: Enter the 5 distances with the cold football in context 2. Commas are not needed,
however, spaces are.
Step 5: Select Calculate observed difference
The applet will now show the means and the mean difference.
Step 6: In simulated difference type 100 then select Add more trials.
Step 7: View the dotplot and identify the p-value. p-value =

4) Why is it acceptable to mix up the distances for warm and cold?

Conclusion
5) Because ___________ of the 100 trials of the simulation produced a difference of at least
________ yards by random chance, we __________________ have convincing evidence that this
kicker has a greater ability to kick footballs when they are warmer. It is possible that a type
________ error was committed.

From Statistical Reasoning in Sports 2013