Quiz 1 Review Questions

DSCI 305

Questions 1-11 are True/False questions.

1. Consider an SRS drawn from a large population. As the sample size increases, the standard deviation
of the sample mean also increases.

2. The standard deviation of a sample mean is always less than or equal to the population standard deviation.

3. The sample mean of an SRS drawn from a Normal population has a Normal distribution regardless of the
sample size.

4. As the confidence level associated with a confidence interval increases, the width of the interval
increases.

5. A small P-value supports the alternative hypothesis.

6. If the P-value of a test statistic is smaller than the significance level, we always reject the null hypothesis
whether the test is one-tailed or two-tailed.

7. Smaller significance level requires stronger evidence against the null hypothesis in order to reject it.

8. A z statistic is used for hypothesis testing only when the sample size is large.

9. The variability of a t distribution becomes larger as its degrees of freedom increases.

10. The t procedures are not robust against outliers, but robust against non-Normality of the population.

11. If the data show no clear outliers or strong skewness, one can use the t procedures as long as the sample
size is at least 15.

12. If a simple random sample is taken from a large population that is not normally distributed, the
sampling distribution of the sample mean is (Assume the population standard deviation  is known.)
(a) exactly normal regardless of the sample size.
(b) exactly normal for a large sample and approximately normal for a small sample.
(c) approximately normal regardless of the sample size.
(d) approximately normal for a large sample and unknown for a small sample.

13. A 95% confidence interval for the mean  of a population is computed from a random sample and
found to be 9 ± 3. We may conclude
(a) there is a 95% probability that  is between 6 and 12.
(b) there is a 95% probability that the true mean is 9 and there is a 95% chance that the true margin of
error is 3.
(c) if we took many, many additional random samples and from each computed a 95% confidence
interval for , approximately 95% of these intervals would contain .
(d) all of the above.

14. Other things being equal, the margin of error (or the width) of a confidence interval decreases as
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 (a) the sample size increases.
(b) the confidence level increases.
(c) the population standard deviation increases.
(d) all of the above
(e) b and c

15. In a hypothesis test, assuming the null hypothesis is true, the probability that the test statistic will take
a value at least as extreme as that actually observed in the sample is
(a) the P-value of the test.
(b) the level of significance of the test.
(c) the confidence level of the test.
(d) the probability that the null hypothesis is true.
(e) the probability that the null hypothesis is false.

16. The scores of individual students on the American College Testing (ACT) examination have a normal
distribution with mean 18.6 and standard deviation 6.0. At Bellingham High, 36 seniors take the test.
If the scores at this school have the same distribution as national scores, what are the mean and the
standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the average (sample mean) score for the 36
students?

17. The batteries produced in a manufacturing plant have a mean time to failure of 30 months, with a
standard deviation of two months. You select a simple random sample of 1600 batteries produced in
the manufacturing plant. You test each and record how long it takes for each battery to fail. You then
compute the average x of all the failure times. What is the probability that x is less than 29.9?

18. Total scores on the SAT for more than 1.5 million students who took the test between October 2003
and March 2004 are roughly Normally distributed with a mean of 1026 and a standard deviation of
152. If a random sample of 50 students is drawn from this population, what is the probability that the
sample mean is at least 1000?

The following description is for questions 19-21:

Items produced by a manufacturing process are supposed to weigh 90 grams. There is variability in the
items produced, and they do not all weigh exactly 90 grams. The distribution of actual weights can be
approximated by a normal distribution with standard deviation  = 1 gram. A sample of 30 items was
randomly selected, and the mean weight of the sample was 90.5 grams.

19. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean weight of all items produced by the process.

20. Test the hypotheses, H0:  = 90, Ha:  > 90 at  = 5%. Find the P-value.

21. Test the hypotheses, H0:  = 90, Ha:  ≠ 90 at  = 5%. Find the P-value.

22. The mean area  of the several thousand apartments in a new development is advertised to be 1250
square feet. A tenant group thinks that the apartments are smaller than advertised. They hire an engineer
to measure a sample of apartments to test their suspicion. What are the appropriate null and alternative
hypotheses, H0 and Ha, for  ?

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23. The nicotine content in cigarettes of a certain brand is normally distributed, with mean (in milligrams) 
and standard deviation  = 0.1. The brand advertises that the mean nicotine content of its cigarettes is 1.5,
but measurements on a random sample of 100 cigarettes of this brand give a mean of x = 1.53. Is this
evidence that the mean nicotine content is actually higher than advertised? To answer this, test the
hypotheses H0:  = 1.5, Ha:  > 1.5 at the 5% significance level. Find the test statistic and the P-value of
the test.

24. To estimate , the mean salary of full professors at American colleges and universities, you obtain the
salaries of a random sample of 41 full professors. The sample mean is $73,220 and the sample
standard deviation is $4400. What is the margin of error associated with a 99% confidence interval for
?

The following description is for questions 25 and 26:

A random sample of 20 freshmen in a large university was selected and each was given a test to measure
their analytical ability. In the sample, the mean score was 64 points and the standard deviation was 12
points.

25. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean score of all freshmen in the university.

26. Test the hypotheses, H0:  = 60, Ha:  > 60 at  = 5%.

The following description is for questions 27:

Twelve runners are asked to run a 10-kilometer race on each of two consecutive weeks. In one of the
races the runners wear one brand of shoes and in the other a second brand. Which brand they wear in
which race is determined at random. All runners are timed and are asked to run their best in each race.
The results are given in the worksheet “race” of an Excel file “Quiz 1 review questions (DATA).”

We want to determine if there is evidence that times using brand one tend to be less than times using
brand two.

27. What are the null and alternative hypotheses?

28. Find the critical value at  = 5% and the decision rule.

29. Find the t statistic.

30. Find the P-value.

31. What is the conclusion of the test?

32. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the difference in times between the two brands.