UNIVERSITY OFZIMBABWE

BUSINESS STUDIES DEPARTMENT

BS106 BUSINESS STATISTICS
nd
2 SEMESTER EXAMINATION- JUNE 2013

TIME: 3 HOURS
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INSTRUCTION TO CANDIDATES
1) Answer question One and any other Three of your choice.
2) All question carry equal marks.
3) In all, four questions should be attempted.
4) Start each question on a fresh page.
5) Clearly number your answers part by part.
6) Indicate questions attempted on the space provided, NOT in the examiner’s
column.
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QUESTION ONE (COMPULSORY) (25 marks)

1a)
The table below gives a summary of the performance of random samples by sex of
students who sat for the BS107 2012 final examination.

Range of Marks 50 to < 60 60 to < 70 70 to < 80 80 to < 90 Total

Males 3 5 6 2 16
Females 2 5 4 1 12

(i) Calculate (separately) the mean and standard deviation for both sexes. (6 marks)
(ii) If 90% confidence intervals are calculated separately for each sex, which one would be
more precise and why? (5 marks)
(iii) At 5% level of significance, is there any statistically significant difference between
males and females in terms of their mean performance? (10
marks)

1b) Approximate the 70% mid-range for males from a less than ogive curve. (4 marks)

QUESTION TWO (OPTIONAL) (25 marks)

2a) Compare and contrast stratified random sampling and cluster random sampling.
(5 marks)

2b)The following are rates of change in the inflation rate for the past eight months. (Note
increase is denoted by I and decrease is denoted by D).3% I; 9% I; 7%D; 4%I; 5%D;
4%D; 3%I and 3%D.

Calculate the geometric mean for these inflation rate figures. (5 marks)

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2c) The bonuses rewarded to employees of a certain company in American dollars were
as follows:
470 310 420 330 580 510 250 280 620 290 650 910
510 300 430 720 730 370 290 390 530 610 520 350

Calculate the Pearson’s coefficient of Skewness (SkP) and comment on it. (5 marks)

2d) A consumer group is interested in estimating the population proportion of packages

of frost beef sold at a particular store that have an actual fat content on the label. How
many packages of the frost beef should be tested in order to estimate Π to within ± 0.05
with a 95% confidence level? Furthermore, assume that the chance that sold frost beef
will have the actual fat content on the label is 0.90. (5 marks)

2e) The random variable X has a normal distribution with a standard deviation of 25. It is
known that the probability that X exceeds 152 is 0.88. Find the mean of the probability
distribution. (5 marks)

QUESTION THREE (OPTIONAL) (25 marks)

3a) The service time of the first service of a Mercedes Benz is found to be normally
distributed with a mean of 70 minutes and variance of 81 minutes2.
(i) What percentage of the first service will be completed between 50 and 85
minutes? (5 marks)
(ii) If the Mercedes Benz dealer wants to ensure that no more than 5% of all first
services will take longer than 80 minutes, what should the mean service time
be? (5 marks)

3b) The manager of a large shopping mall believes that visitors to the mall spend, on
average, 85 minutes in the mall on any one occasion. To test this belief, the manager
commissioned a study which found out that, from a random sample of 132 visitors to the
mall, the average visiting time in the mall was 80.5 minutes. Assume that the standard
deviation was 25 minutes and the visiting time is normally distributed. Conduct an
appropriate test to support or refute the manager’s belief at 3.5% level of significance.
(10 marks)

3c) The following were initials of a random sample of students who are doing BS106 this
current semester. M; K; W; A; M; W; W; W; A; K; M; A; A; K; M; M; K; M;
K; A; M; F; M; K; W; M. Summarise the data using an appropriate graph. (5 marks)

QUESTION FOUR (OPTIONAL) (25 marks)

]
4a) The training manager of a company that assembles and exports pool pumps wants to
know if there is any link between the number of hours spent by assembly workers in

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training and their productivity on the job. A random sample of ten assembly workers was
selected and the performances evaluated. The data is given in the table below.

Training Hrs 20 36 20 38 40 33 32 28 40 24
Output 40 70 44 56 60 48 62 54 63 38
(i) Calculate and explain the regression constants in view of the given variables.
(5 marks)
(ii) Calculate and explain the coefficient of determination. (5
marks)

4b)The table below gives the raw % marks which were scored by three students in eight
Business Statistics tests during the second semester.
Student Test 1 Test 2 Test 3 Test 4 Test 5 Test 6 Test 7 Test 8
Tinotenda 56 76 66 80 94 48 74 77
Tashinga 69 54 87 65 88 55 75 80
Ottilia 76 44 78 66 81 76 80 78
Using appropriate summary measures, who was the most consistent student and why?
(5 marks)
4c) The monthly fuel bills (in $) of a random sample of 50 motorists in Harare who
commute to work daily by car, was recorded in the recent survey. The data are presented
in the table below.

289 350 510 285 256 394 365 425 533 275
278 550 350 614 400 294 368 293 385 350
616 260 446 364 386 444 512 646 346 668
295 265 495 285 400 460 288 544 390 486
662 602 545 357 528 414 636 318 378 335
Present these fuel bills using a stem and leaf display and comment on the distribution.
(5 marks)

4d) Once a week a merchandiser replenishes the stock of a particular product brand in the
six stores which she is responsible. Experience has shown that there in one in five chance
that a given store will have run out of stock before the merchandiser’s weekly visit. What
is the probability that at least three stores will be out of stock during her routine visits?
(5 marks)

QUESTION FIVE (OPTIONAL) (25 marks)

5a) The ages of a cross section of a random sample of UZ students was is presented in the
table below

Age 15 to < 20 20 to < 25 25 to < 30 30 to < 35 35 to <40

>cum f(i) 50 45 30 15 5
(i) Draw a frequency histogram and approximate the modal value. (5 marks)
(ii) Confirm the answer in (i) above through calculation. (5 marks)

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5b) Workers in two different mine groups were asked what they conspired to be the most
important labour management problem. In group A, 250 out of a random sample of 400 workers
felt that a fair adjustment of their grievances was the most important problem In group B, 50 out
of a random sample of 100 workers felt that this was the most important problem. Construct a
99% confidence interval of the difference in the population proportions of those workers who felt
that a fair adjustment to their grievances was the most important problem. (5 marks)

5c) Define and illustrate with the aid of examples the difference between the principles of
inclusion and exclusion. (5 marks)

5d) The manager of a large supermarket believes that 25% of the customers shop for groceries
daily, 35% shop at least 3to 4 times per week, 305 shop twice weekly, and the balance shop once
a week. To test this belief, a survey was conducted amongst a random sample of 180 customers.
The following shopping frequencies were identified.

Visits per week Daily 3 to 4 times Twice Once Total

Numbers of customers 36 55 62 27 180

If a hypothesis test was to be carried out, calculate the most appropriate, test statistic. (5 marks)

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END OF EXAMINATION GOOD LUCK
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