TUTORIAL 2: ESTIMATION/STA408

QUESTION 1
a) Past record of milk consumption shows that the amount of milk consumed per person a year by the
Malaysians is normally distributed with mean 45.5 litres and standard deviation of 8 litres.
i) Find the probability that a person selected at random consumes less than 40 litres of milk a
year. (3 marks)
ii) If a sample of 20 individuals is selected, find the probability that the mean of the sample is
between 42 litres and 50 litres. (6 marks)

b) The mass, X (in grams) of a random of 10 bags of sugar gives the following data.

 X  15426  X  X 
2

i) Calculate the unbiased estimates of the population mean and standard deviation of the mass of
bags of sugar. (3 marks)
ii) Construct a 95% confident interval for the mean mass of bags of sugar. (5 marks)

c) A newly established hotel is interested in advertising its services on television. The management of
the hotel has been presented with two different advertisements. In order to help them make a
decision on which advertisement to use, a sample of 12 respondents was selected and were asked to
watch both the advertisements. After each viewing, each respondent is given a quiz consisting of 10
questions. The number of correct responses is recorded and listed in Table 1 below.
Respondent Advertisement 1 Advertisement 2
1 7 9
2 8 9
3 6 6
4 10 10
5 5 4
6 7 9
7 5 7
8 4 5
9 6 8
10 7 9
11 5 6
12 8 10
Table 1: The number of correct responses

i. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the variance ration between the two advertisements.
Are the two variances being differ? (6 marks)
ii. Use the result obtained in (i) to Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean difference in
the number of correct responses between advertisement 1 and advertisement 2. (6 marks)
iii. Based on the confidence interval in (a), which advertisement would you recommend the
management of the hotel to use? Give a reason for your answer. (2 marks)

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d) Some restaurants appear to prefer to hire older waiters and waitresses while others prefer younger
ones. A consultant for a large chain of restaurants wants to determine whether restaurant customers
generally prefer younger or older waiters and waitresses. The consultant took a random sample of
seven young (20 - 30 years old), seven middle age (40-50 years old) and seven older (55-65 years old)
waiters and waitresses and measured the percentage of total bill left as a tip for one evening. The
following statistics was then computed.

Table 2: Descriptive for the percentage of total bill left as tips

N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error
Young 7 11.7714 A .56219
Middle-age 7 13.0000 B .67893
Older 7 9.9429 .90159 C
Total 21 11.5714 1.87940 D

i. Determine the values of A, B, C, and D (4 marks)

ii. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the variance ration between the two advertisements.
Are the two variances being differ? (5 marks)
iii. Construct a 95% confidence interval for the difference in the mean tips of middle-age and older
waiters and waitresses. What can you conclude from this interval? (6 marks)

e) The manufacturer of a gasoline additive claimed that the use of this additive increases gasoline
mileage. A random sample of six cars was selected and these cars were driven for one week without
the gasoline additive and then for one week with the gasoline additive. The following table gives the
miles per gallon for these cars without and with the gasoline additive.

Table 1: Gasoline mileage (km/gallon)

N Mean Std. Deviation Std. error mean

Pair Gasoline mileage(without
1 additive)
Gasoline mileage(wit additive)
Table 2: Paired Sample Statistics

i) Complete table 2 above. (14 marks)

ii) Are both samples of gasoline mileage are dependent samples? State your reason (2 marks)
iii) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the difference in mean mileage per gallon for cars
without and with the gasoline additive. State your conclusion. (4 marks)
iv) Can you conclude that the means mileages per gallon for cars without and with the gasoline
additive are different? State your reason. (1 mark)

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QUESTION 2
a) The length of time of long-distance telephone calls has mean of 18 minutes and standard deviation
of 4 minutes. Suppose a sample of 50 telephone calls is used to reflect on the population of all long-
distance calls.
i) What is the probability that the mean of the 50 calls is between 16 and 19 minutes? (4 marks)
ii) What theorem do we need in order to solve this problem? (1 mark)

b) The weights of the candy (in gm) found in 16 randomly selected packets produced by a company
were given below.
41.0 41.4 41.6 40.8 40.7 41.4 42.0 40.9
42.0 41.6 41.1 41.8 42.1 41.6 41.5 42.3
i) Calculate the unbiased point estimates of the population mean and standard deviation of the
mass of packet of candy. (5 marks)
ii) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean mass of packets of candy. (5 marks)

c) Ariff is the Human Resources Director at the head office of a reputable bank in Ipoh. Ariff finds that
absenteeism among the bank’s employee is quite high leading to poor moral and slow performance.
In order to boost employee performance and lower absenteeism among his employees, he sent the
bank’s employees to attend “The Innersole of Highly Effective People”, a training program conducted
by Top Performers Sdn. Bhd. In order to test the effectiveness of the training program, he selected a
random sample of 12 employees and gathered data on the number of days these employees were
absent from work six months before the training program. He then collected the same data six
months after the training programs. The data is shown in the table.

Employee A B C D E F G H I J K L
Before 14 9 10 6 7 9 11 5 7 12 10 12
After 8 7 6 3 8 5 6 3 4 10 5 6

Construct and interpret the 95% confidence interval for the mean difference in number of days
employees were absent before and after training program. Can you conclude that the mean before
and after the training program are different?

d) The Computer Anxiety Rating Scale (CARS) measure an individual’s level of computer anxiety, on
scale from 20 (no anxiety) to 100 (highest level of anxiety). Researchers at a university administered
CARS to 100 students from Hotel Management Faculty. One of the objectives of the study was to
determine whether there is a significant difference in mean anxiety level between males and
females. Below are the results.
Group Statistics
Sex N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean
Anxiety Male 60 A 6.29 C
Female 40 52.40 B 1.13

i) Calculate the value of A, B, and C (4 marks)

ii) Based on your answer in (a), construct the 98% confidence interval for the ratio of variances
between male and female. What you can conclude from the confidence interval? (5 marks)
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iii)Based on your answer in (ii), construct the 98% confidence interval for the different in mean of
anxiety level between males and females. State your conclusion. (5 marks)
iv) Based on your confidence interval in (d), is there any difference between the mean level of
anxiety experienced by male and female? (3 marks)

QUESTION 3
a) The average daily energy intake over 10 days for a healthy woman is 6,754 kJ. Assume that the
standard deviation is 1,142 kJ and the distribution is approximately normal.
i) Find the probability that a person selected at random has daily energy intake more than 7,515
kJ. (3 marks)
ii) If a sample of 50 individuals is selected, find the probability that the sample mean will be
between 6,390 kJ and 7,000 kJ. (3 marks)
iii) If a sample of 15 individuals is selected, find the probability that at least 2 persons have daily
energy intake more than 7,515 kJ. (5 marks)
iv) What is the probability that, among randomly selected 30 individuals, 15 or more of them have
daily energy intake more than 7,515 kJ? (5 marks)

b) The MINITAB analysis of the systolic blood pressure (SBP) readings in mmHg of 100 patients that
were randomized in a clinical trial project is given in the following tabulation.

i) Find the standard error of the mean, k. (2 marks)

ii) Verify the result of the 95% confidence interval for the systolic blood pressure readings.
(4 marks)

c) A computer scientist is investigating the usefulness of two different design languages in improving
programming tasks. Ten expert programmers who are familiar with both languages are asked to
code a standard function in both languages and the time (in minutes) is recorded. The data and the
Minitab output are as follows

Construct the 95% confidence interval on the difference in mean coding times of the ten expert
programmers. Interpret the interval.

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d) Puan Siti who stays in Batu Gajah drives all the way to Ipoh to buy monthly provisions from Giant
Supermarket. She claims that the same items at Giant Supermarket are priced cheaper than Jaya
Jusco Supermarket in Ipoh. Her husband, Encik Samad decides to examine her claim by selecting a
sample of items and examining the prices of these items from both supermarkets. The data is
summarized in the following table.
Items A B C D E F G H I J
Giant
15.50 5.80 2.85 2.80 13.80 4.20 3.90 13.80 30.20 15.90
Supermarket
Jusco
15.99 6.20 2.80 2.90 14.20 3.59 4.00 13.70 30.50 16.10
Supermarket

Encik Samad wants to estimate the mean difference in the prices of the items between the two
supermarkets with 95% confidence level. Is there significant difference in mean of price between
Giant Supermarket and Tesco Supermarket? (10 marks)

QUESTION 4
a) Mr. Fadhili's reading class can read a mean of 175 words per minute with a standard deviation of 20
words per minute.
i) The top 3% of the class is to receive a special award. What is the minimum number of words per
minute a student would have to read in order to get the award? (5 marks)
ii) If a sample of 20 students is selected, find the probability that the mean of the sample is less
than 170 words per minute. (5 marks)

b) A manufacturer claims that their televisions have an average lifetime of less than five years. Assume
the standard deviation is seven months. If 81 televisions are selected at random, and their average
lifetime was found to be 59 months.
i) Find the 95% confidence interval of the television mean lifetime. (4 marks)
ii) Find the 98% confidence interval of the television mean lifetime. (4 marks)

c) A set of facilitation tools to help with data analysis for problem solving is being developed by a group
of statisticians at UiTM. In order to test effectiveness of these tools, a group of research officers
were asked to analyse and produce a built-in report for a set of data on the computer. Twelve
equally capable research officers were randomly selected and six were randomly assigned a standard
procedure to complete the task. The other six were asked to do the task using the developed
facilitation tools. The response measured was the time to completion (in minutes). The data
collected are shown below:

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i) Construct a 95% confidence interval to se the differences between the population standard
deviation of completion times for the two procedures. State your conclusion. (5 marks)
ii) Construct a 99% confidence interval to estimate the difference between the average completion
times for the two procedures. Can you conclude that the facilitation tools increase the speed
with which the task is completed by more than 20 minutes? (6 marks)

d) A study was conducted on the effects of a special class designed to aid students with verbal skills.
Each student was given a verbal skill test twice, both before and after completing a 4-week class. The
results are given in the table below

based on the following results from a computer software package.

i) What is the purpose of the study? (2 marks)

ii) Proof that the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval is -1.65. (4 marks)
iii) Does the 4-weeks class help to improve the verbal skill of students? State your reasons.
(3 marks)

QUESTION 5
a) Serum cholesterol level for a 17-year old teenager follows a normal distribution with a mean 170
mg/dl and a standard deviation of 30 mg/dl.
i) If five 17-year old teenagers are selected at random, find the probability that the sample mean
will have cholesterol level above 200 mg/dl. (4 marks)
ii) If a sample of ten 17-year old teenagers is selected at random find the probability that at least
two persons have cholesterol level below 160mg/dl. (4 marks)
iii) What is the probability that, among randomly selected 30 17-year old teenagers, 13 or more of
them have cholesterol level below 160 mg/dl? (4 marks)

b) A random sample of prices (in RM) for the 1GB drives sold in a mall is as follows.
15 30 45 18 21 29 25 43 33 27 35 20
i) Calculate the unbiased estimates of the population mean and the standard deviation. (5 marks)
ii) Construct a 99% confidence interval for the true population mean. (4 marks)

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c) An investigation was conducted into the dust content in the flue gases of two types of solid fuel
boilers. Thirteen boilers of Type X and nine boilers of Type Y were used under identical fuelling and
extraction conditions. Over a similar period, the following quantities, in grams, of dust were
deposited in similar traps inserted in each of the 22 flues. Assume that these independent samples
came from a normal population. Below are the data for dust deposit for Type X and Y.

Dust deposit (in grams) in Type X boilers:

56.4 73.1 82.1 78.7 67.2 75.1 48.0 53.3 55.5 61.5 60.6 55.2 63.1

Dust deposit (in grams) in Type Y boilers:

39.3 53.0 58.8 55.8 41.2 58.9 66.6 46.0 56.4

i) Find the mean and variance of each of the samples. (5 marks)

ii) What are the two different degrees of freedom associated with the F distribution? (2 marks)
iii) Is there enough evidence to conclude at 2.5% significance level that there are differences
between variance of dust deposit in Type X boilers with variance of dust deposit in Type Y
boilers? (6 marks)
iv) At 2.5% significant level, Is there differences between the mean dust deposit in Type X Boiler
and dust deposit in Type Y Boilers? State your reasons. (6 marks)

d) As an aid for improving students' study habits, nine students were randomly selected to attend a
seminar on the importance of education in life. The table below shows the number of hours each
student study per week before and after the seminar.

i) Show that the mean difference is -3.11 (2 marks)

ii) At 10% level of significance, construct the confidence interval for the difference between the two
means. (4 marks)
iii) Did attending the seminar increase the number of hours the students study per week? State your
reason. (2 marks)

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QUESTION 5
a) A certain machine produces electrical resistors that have resistance which follows a normal
distribution with a mean resistance of 40 ohms and a standard deviation of 5 ohms.
i) Find the probability that the resistors will have a resistance exceeding 43 ohms. (3 marks)
ii) If six resistors selected at random, find the probability that the sample mean will have a
resistance between 42.5 ohms and 43.5 ohms. (4 marks)
iii) If a sample of eight resistors is selected at random, find the probability that at most three
resistors will have a resistance of less than 43 ohms. (4 marks)
iv) If 15% of the resistors have resistance below Y ohms, what is the value of Y? (6 marks)

b) During a particular week, 13 babies were born in a maternity unit. Part of the standard procedure is
to measure the length of the baby. Given below is a list of the lengths, in centimeters, of the babies
born in this particular week.
49 50 45 51 47 49 48 54 53 55 45 50 48
Construct a 98% confidence interval for the mean length of babies for this week. (5 marks)

c) For testing the effect of a new medication on pulse rate, 60 subjects are randomly divided into two
groups of 30. Group 1 is given the new medicine and Group 2 is given the placebo.

i) Show that the 95% confidence interval of difference mean is between -9.29 and -0.91. (4 marks)
ii) Based on the 95% confidence interval, is the new medicine has an effect on pulse rate. (2 marks)
iii) By constructing 98% confidence interval, what you can say about the two populations variances.
(6 marks)

d) Automobile accidents still occur at various high-risk intersections in a particular town despite the
traffic lights. The Traffic Department claims that a modification in the type of lights will reduce these
accidents. Eight intersections were chosen at random where the lights at those intersections were
modified. The number of accidents during a-month period before and after the modifications were
recorded in the below table

i) Are the two samples (before modification and after modification) independent? (2 marks)
ii) Construct 90% confidence interval for the difference between the mean number of accidents
before and after the modification. (4 marks)
iii) Is the automobile modification increase the number of accidents? State your reason. (2 marks)

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