TUTORIAL (CHAPTER 2)

1. A company claims that its medicine, Brand A provides faster relief from pain than another
company's medicine, Brand B. A researcher tested both brands of medicine on two groups of
randomly selected patients. The results of the test are given in the following table. The mean
and standard deviation of relief times are recorded in minutes.

Brand Sample Size Mean of Relief Times Standard Deviation of

Relief Times
A 15 45 8
B 12 40 6

Assume that the two populations are normally distributed with equal variances.

a) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the difference between the mean relief times for
the two brands of medicine.
b) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean relief times from brand A.
c) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the ratio of mean relief times for the two brands of
medicine.
d) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the variance relief times from brand A.

2. The following measurements were recorded for the drying time, in hours, of a certain brand of
latex paint:
3.4 2.5 4.8 2.9 3.6 2.8 3.3 5.6 3.7 2.8 4.4 4.0 5.2 3.0 4.8
Assuming that the measurements represent a random sample from a normal population:
a) Estimate the values of the population mean and population standard deviation.
b) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the population mean, u.
c) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the population standard deviation, a.

3. An investigation of two kinds of photocopying equipment showed that 55 failures of the first
kind of equipment took an average 83.2 minutes to repair with a standard deviation of 19.3
minutes, while 67 failures of the second kind of equipment took on the average 90.8 minutes to
repair with a standard deviation of 21.4 minutes. Assuming that the repair time for both
equipment has equal variances, construct a 95% confidence interval for the difference between
the average repair time of the two kinds of equipment.
4. A study was conducted to identified the number of years taken by students to pay up their study
loans after they graduate. A random sample of 30 graduates was selected and a mean of 13
years and a standard deviation of 4.71 years were obtained.
a) Construct a 90% confidence interval for the mean years taken to pay up the study loans.
b) Based on the confidence interval obtained above, can we conclude that a graduate will take
at most 17 years to pay up his/her study loans?

5. Suppose you recorded the time it took you to reach your workplace by bus for 20 days. The
mean time was 35 minutes. You then used the LRT for 25 days. The mean time was 20 minutes.
Assuming it is known that the standard deviation of time are 10 minutes and 3 minutes when
taking bus and LRT, respectively.
a) Determine the point estimate for the difference between the average time it took you to
reach your workplace by bus and the LRT.
b) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the difference between the two means.

6. A precision instrument is guaranteed to read accurately with a standard deviation of 2 units. A

sample of 4 instrument readings on the same object yielded the measurements of 453, 451, 451
and 455 units. Assume that the data is normally distributed. Construct a 90% confidence interval
for the population variance.

7. The function of a kidney is related to our daily diet. A scientist is interested to monitor the
accumulation of chemical contaminants in the diets. He selected a random sample of 41 men
and 81 women. The average daily intake of dairy products for the men is 756 grams per day
with standard deviation of 35 grams per day. The average daily intake of dairy products for the
women is 600 grams per day with standard deviation of 30 grams per day. The daily intake is
normally distributed with equal variances. Construct a 95% confidence interval of the
difference mean daily intake for men and women. Explain the interval obtained.

8. Seven housewives were randomly sampled from a normal population with known standard
deviation of 3.2 kilometers per week. From the sample, it was determined that they walked an
average of 39.2 kilometers per week in their housework. Construct a 95% confidence interval
for the population mean. Explain the meaning.
9. Students in health-fitness program have their body fat percentage measured at the beginning of
the semester. The following measurements give percentages for 10 men and 10 women. Assume
that the body fat percentages for the two populations are normally distributed with unequal
variances.

Males 11.1 7.89 19.5 12.1 14 8.3 8.3 12.31 12.4 10

Female 22.9 25.03 31.6 26.9 27.7 25.75 21.7 23.63 19.36 25.06

a) Find the point estimates for the population mean and variance for both male and female
students.
b) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the mean of body fat for male students.
c) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the variance of body fat for male students.
d) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the ratio of the variances of body fat for male and
female students. Can we conclude unequal variances.
e) Using the result obtained in part (d), find a 95% confidence interval for significant
difference in mean body fat between male and female students. Interpret the interval.

10. A federal regulatory agency is investigating an advertised claim that a certain device can
increase the gasoline mileage of cars (mpg). Ten such devices are purchased and installed in
cars belonging to the agency. Gasoline mileage for each of the cars is recorded both before
and after installation. The data are recorded below.

Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Before (mpg) 19.1 29.9 17.6 20.2 23.5 26.8 21.7 25.7 19.5 28.2
After (mpg) 25.8 23.7 28.7 25.4 32.8 19.2 29.6 22.3 25.7 20.1
Given ∑ 𝑑 = −21.1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ∑ 𝑑2 =555.85 where d=after-before

Find a 95% confidence interval for mean difference gain in mileage after the devices were
installed. Interpret the interval.

11. The following statistics scores were obtained from a sample of university students:
85 70 64 54 68 90 83 74 47 62
a) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the population mean.
b) Given that the variance of another sample comprising of eight university students is 74.25.
Construct a 90% confidence interval for the ratio of the two variances.
12. A random sample of 12 technicians at a large plant found the following number of hours of
overtime worked in the last month:
22 16 28 12 118 36 23 11 41 29 26 31
Assume the population is normally distributed
a) Calculate the mean and standards deviation for the above data
b) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the population variance
c) Construct a 95% confidence interval for the population mean

13. A researcher wanted to investigate if male and female workers in a city commute the same
distance to work. A sample of 36 male worked showed that they commute an average of 40
km to work. A sample of 40 female workers gave a mean commuting distance 0of 20 km.
Assume that the two populations of commuting distance are normally distributed with
population standards deviation of 7.2 and 5.4 km respectively.
a) Construct a 95% confidence interval for difference between the mean commuting distance
for male and female
b) Can you conclude that the mean commuting distance for male and female workers in the
city? Justify your answer
c) Construct a 95% confidence interval for e mean commuting distance for male
d) Construct a 95% confidence interval for standard deviation commuting distance for female

14. A random sample of 20 bottles of a medicine that comes in liquid form is taken and the contents
of each bottle are accurately weighted. The sample mean weight in grams) of the contents of a
bottle is 99.3 and the same variance is 0.4678. Assume that the weight are normally distributed.
a) Calculate a 95% confidence interval for the underlying population mean weight of the
medicine in a bottle
b) Calculate a 95% confidence interval for the population variance weight of the medicine in a
bottle