Question 1:

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan polling organization that provides information about issues, attitudes,
and trends shaping America. In a poll, Pew researchers found that 47% of American adult respondents reported
getting at least some local news on their cell phone or tablet computer (Pew Research website, May 14, 2011).
Further findings showed that 42% of respondents who own cell phones or tablet computers use those devices to
check local weather reports and 37% use the devices to find local restaurants or other businesses.
a) One statistic concerned using cell phones or tablet computers for local news. What population is that
finding applicable to?
b) If you were a restaurant owner, would you find these results interesting? Why? How could you take
advantage of this information?
Question 2:
In 2008 the Better Business Bureau settled 75% of complaints they received (USA Today, March 2, 2009).
Suppose you have been hired by the Better Business Bureau to investigate the complaints they received this year
involving new car dealers. You plan to select a sample of new car dealer complaints to estimate the proportion of
complaints the Better Business Bureau is able to settle. Assume the population proportion of complaints settled
for new car dealers is 0.75, the same as the overall proportion of complaints settled in 2008.
a) Suppose you select a sample of 450 complaints involving new car dealers. Show the sampling distribution
of p.
b) Based upon a sample of 450 complaints, what is the probability that the sample proportion will be within
0.04 of the population proportion?
c) Suppose you select a sample of 200 complaints involving new car dealers. Show the sampling distribution
of p.
d) Based upon the smaller sample of only 200 complaints, what is the probability that the sample proportion
will be within 0.04 of the population proportion?
e) As measured by the increase in probability, how much do you gain in precision by taking the larger
sample in part (b)?
Question 3:
The National Center for Education Statistics reported that 47% of college students work to pay for tuition
and living expenses. Assume that a sample of 450 college students was used in the study
a) Provide a 95% confidence interval for the population proportion of college students who work to pay for
tuition and living expenses
b) Provide a 99% confidence interval for the population proportion of college students who work to pay for
tuition and living expenses
c) What happens to the margin of error as the confidence is increased from 95% to 99%?
Question 4:
At western university the historical mean of scholarship examination scores for freshman applications is
900. A historical population standard deviation σ = 180 is assumed known. Each year, the assistant dean uses a
sample of applications to determine whether the mean examination score for the new freshman applications has
changed.
a) State the hypotheses.
b) What is the 95% confidence interval estimate of the population mean examination score if a sample of 200
applications provided a sample mean 𝑥̅= 935?
c) Use the confidence interval to conduct a hypothesis test. using a = 0.05, what is your conclusion?
d) What is the p-value?
Question 5:
Airline passengers arrive randomly and independently at the passenger-screening facility at a major
international airport. The mean arrival rate is 10 passengers per minute.
a) Compute the probability of no arrivals in a one-minute period.
b) Compute the probability that three or fewer passengers arrive in a one-minute period.
 c) Compute the probability of no arrivals in a 15-second period.
d) Compute the probability of at least one arrival in a 15-second period.
Question 6:
Foot Locker uses sales per square foot as a measure of store productivity. Sales are currently running at an
annual rate of $400 per square foot. You have been asked by management to conduct a study of a sample of 65
Foot Locker stores. Assume the standard deviation in annual sales per square foot for the population of all 3400
Foot Locker stores is $90.
a) Show the sampling distribution of x, the sample mean annual sales per square foot for a sample of 65 Foot
Locker stores.
b) What is the probability that the sample mean will be within. $25 of the population mean?
c) Suppose you find a sample mean of $350. What is the probability of finding a sample mean of $350 or
less? Would you consider such a sample to be an unusually lowperforming group of stores?
Question 7:
The mean cost of domestic airfares in the United States rose to an alltime high of $405 per ticket. Airfares
were based on the total ticket value, which consisted of the price charged by the airlines plus any additional taxes
and fees. Assume domestic airfares are normally distributed with a standard deviation of $120.
a) what is the probability that a domestic airfare is $570 or more?
b) what is the probability that a domestic airfare is $270 or less?
c) what is the probability that a domestic airfare is between $320 and $520?
d) what is the cost for the 5% highest domestic airfares?
Question 8:
Consumer Reports uses a survey of readers to obtain customer satisfaction ratings for the nation's largest
retailers (Consumer Reports, March 2012). Each survey respondent is asked to rate a specified retailer in terms of
six factors: quality of products, selection, value, checkout efficiency, service, and store layout. An overall
satisfaction score summarizes the rating for each respondent with 100 meaning the respondent is completely
satisfied in terms of all six factors. Sample data representative of independent samples of Target and Walmart
customers are shown below.
Target Walmart
n1 = 25 n2 = 30
x 1 = 79 x 2= 71
a) Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses to test whether there is a difference between the population mean
customer satisfaction scores for the two retailers.
b) Assume that experience with the Consumer Reports satisfaction rating scale indicates that a population
standard deviation of 12 is a reasonable assumption for both retailers. Conduct the hypothesis test and report the
p-value. At a 0.05 level of significance what is your conclusion?
c) Which retailer, if either, appears to have the greater customer satisfaction? Provide a 95% confidence interval
for the difference between the population mean customer satisfaction scores for the two retailers.