STF1103

Statistics for Biology 2

LU2
The Mann-Whitney Rank Sum
Test
Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test
• Use this test to see if two small independent random
samples are taken from identical populations.
 Use to examine the null hypothesis that there is no true difference
between two populations, based on data from two independent random
samples.
 Mann-Whitney test is also referred to as the U test.

• The non-parametric alternative to the unpaired t-test or 2-

sample independent t-test.
 Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test does not assume that the two populations
sampled, have normal distributions.

• Two independent samples are taken from the same kind

of population distribution with a possible difference in the
means (or medians).
Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test (continue)

• Under H 0 : 1  2 the two samples should resemble one

another. Hence, if we combine the two samples and rank
the values, the ranks within the two samples should be the
same.

• If the sum of the ranks of one sample is much larger than

that of the other sample, we would suspect that the two
means (or medians) are not equal.
Procedure for Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test

The procedure can be summarized as follows:

• Combine the two samples.

• Rank the combined sample, using tied ranks if necessary.

• Calculate S1 = sum of ranks of sample-1, and S2 = sum of

ranks of sample-2.

n (n  1) n2 (n2  1)
• Calculate U 1  S1  1 1 and U 2  S2 
2 2
where ni=size of the ith sample
Procedure for Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test (continue)

• The test statistic is calculated as:

ìmin(U1, ,U 2 ) forH A : m1 ¹ m2 ü
ï ï
U =í U1 for H A : m1 < m2 ý
ï U for H m > m ï
î 2 A : 1 2 þ

• The rejection region is U  CV (critical value) is obtained

from the Mann-Whitney U test table, Table a.10.
Example 1

The bacteria counts per unit volume are obtained for two
types of culture, A and B. It is of interest to determine
whether one culture has a significant count than the other.

The data are:

Culture A, x, 1: 27 31 26 25
Culture B, y, 2: 32 29 35 28

•The hypothesis are:

H0 : x   y

H A : x   y
Example 1 (continue)

• The ranks of the combined data are:

Ranks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

A 25 26 27 31

B 28 29 32 35

from which
SA = 1 + 2 + 3 + 6 = 12
SB = 4 + 5 + 7 + 8 = 24
nA = 4, nB = 4
Example 1 (continue)

4(5) 4(5)
U A  12  2 U B  24   14
2 2

U = min (UA,UB) = 2

• For  = 0.05, the rejection region is U  0. The zero is

read off from the Mann-Whitney Rank Sum Test table
with nA = 4, and nB = 4. Since 2 > 0, the result is not
significant. Accept null hypothesis.

• We conclude that at 5% level of significance, there is no

evidence of a difference in the counts of culture A and
culture B.
Example 2

To test if the yield/harvest for organic farming is different from

conventional farming?

Independent random samples from method A (organic farming)

and method B (conventional farming) gave the following
information about yield of green beans (in tons/acre).

Method
1.83 2.34 1.16 1.99 1.78 2.01 2.12 1.15 1.41 1.95 1.25
A
Method
2.15 2.17 2.11 1.89 1.34 1.88 1.96 1.10 1.75 1.80 1.53 2.71
B

Use a 5% level of significance to test that there is no difference

between the yield distributions.
 1.83 2.34 1.16 1.99 1.78 2.01 2.12 1.15 1.41 1.95 1.25
Method
A
(11) (22) (3) (16) (9) (17) (19) (2) (6) (14) (4)

2.15 2.17 2.11 1.89 1.34 1.88 1.96 1.10 1.75 1.80 1.53 2.71
Method
B
(20) (21) (18) (13) (5) (12) (15) (1) (8) (10) (7) (23)

H0 : µA = µB
HA : µA ≠ µB
11(12)
SA = 123, nA = 11 U A  123   57
2
12(13)
SB = 153 , nB = 12 U B  153   75
2

From the table, the critical value for nA = 11, nB = 12 is 33 at α =0.05

• For a two-tailed test, U = min (UA, UB) = UA = 57

• UA > critical value = 33, therefore do no reject H0.

• Conclusion: At 5% level of significance, the evidence is

insufficient to conclude that the yield for organic and
conventional farming methods are different.