STAT2170 and STAT6180: Applied Statistics

Practice Questions: Week 1: Review of Basic Statistics

//
Karol
// Binkowski
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Question 1

I Give the most accurate range you can for the p-value, using the
relevant tables or R.

Part H0 H1 Test stat P-Value

(a) µ = 68 µ > 68 t14 = 2.56
(b) µ = 68 µ < 68 t14 = −2.56
(c) µ = 68 µ > 68 t14 = 1.25
(d) µ = 68 µ 6= 68 t14 = 1.56
(e) µ = 180 µ > 180 z = 2.73
(f ) µ = 180 µ 6= 180 z = 1.78

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS 2

Question 2

I Each part of this question concerns the calculation of a confidence

interval for a population mean, µ. For the conditions given in the
question, find the critical value which should be used in this
calculation. State whether this critical value is z ∗ or t ∗ , and give the
degrees of freedom if relevant. (Note: you may assume that the
population is normally distributed).

Part Conf Level % σ n

(a) 90 unknown 10
(b) 99 unknown 10
(c) 95 known 16
(d) 90 known 16

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS 3

Question 3

A call centre director is measuring productivity of the operators employed.

A different pattern of rest breaks was introduced, in the hope that this
would significantly improve productivity. Previously, the average number of
calls handled by an operator in a day was 800. A week after the new
breaks were introduced, the number of calls handled by 25 operators in a
day was measured, and is summarised below. Use an appropriate statistical
test to determine what advice you would give to the director.

n x sx se(x )
25 808.96 23.9747784 4.7949557

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS 4

Question 4

Manufacturers of a popular brand of corn chip have records which indicate

that the average supermarket sales of their product is 500 packets per
week. A consumer organisation recently released information about the fat
levels in corn chips, and this gained some media publicity. The
manufacturer wanted to determine whether their sales had been negatively
affected by this publicity, and drew a random sample of sales data from 16
supermarkets. This data is summarised below. Use an appropriate
statistical test to determine what advice you would give to the
manufacturer.

n x sx se(x )
16 485.625 31.82635 7.956588

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS 5