Chapter 9 Practice Free Response

1. A certain beverage company is suspected of underfilling its cans of soft drink. The
company advertises that its cans contain, on the average, 12 ounces of soda with standard
deviation 0.4 ounce.
(a) Compute the probability that a random sample of 50 cans produces a sample mean fill of
11.9 ounces or less. (A sketch of the distribution is required.)
P ( X 11.9) normalcdf (1E 99,11.9,12,

.4
) 0.0385
50

Graph shown in class

(b). Suppose that each of the 25 students in a statistics class collects a random sample of 50
cans and calculates the mean number of ounces of soda. Describe the approximate
shape of the distribution for these 25 values of x.
n = 50 Since n is large, by the CLT the distribution of x is approximately normal.
(c) What important principle that we studied is used to answer the previous question?
The Central Limit Theorem (CLT)
(d) Use the 689599.7 rule to find the interval that contains the middle 95% of the values
of x in the sampling distribution of x.

.4

50
12 0.11
(11.89,12.11)
12 2

(e) Can you calculate the probability that a single randomly selected can contains 11.9
ounces or less? If so, do it. If not, explain why you cannot.
No, because we are not told that the population is normal and if we are talking about an
individual, n = 1 so the CLT does not apply.

2. A study of college freshmens study habits found that the time (in hours) that college
freshmen use to study each week is approximately normally distributed with a mean of
7.2 hours and a standard deviation of 5.3 hours.
(a) What is the probability that a randomly chosen freshman studies more than twice the
average number of hours? (Sketch required.)
P ( x 14.4) normalcdf (14.4,1E 99, 7.2,5.3) 0.0872
Graph shown in class
(b)
Describe the shape of the sampling distribution of the mean x of a sample of 55
randomly selected freshmen.
Since n = 55 is large, by the CLT the distribution of xis approximately normal.
(c) What are the mean and standard deviation for the average number of hours x spent
studying by an SRS of 55 freshmen?

X 7.2
X

5.3
0.7147
55

(d) What is the probability that the average number of hours spent studying of an SRS of
55 students is greater than 14.2 hours?
P ( x 14.2) normalcdf (14.4,1E 99, 7.2,

5.3
)0
55

(e) Would your answers to a-d be affected if the distribution of number of hours freshmen
study were distinctly nonnormal? Explain briefly.
For part a, our answer would be affected because n = 1 so the CLT does not apply.
But for b-d our answer would not be affected because n = 55 so the CLT states that
the distribution of x is approximately normal.

3. A study of the health of teenagers plans to measure the blood cholesterol level of an
SRS of youth of ages 13 to 16 years. The researchers will report the mean x from their
sample as an estimate of the mean cholesterol level x in this population.
(a) Explain to someone who knows no statistics what it means to say that x is an
unbiased estimator of .
The sampling distribution of x centers around the true population parameter
(b) The sample result x is an unbiased estimator of the population truth no matter
what size SRS the study chooses. Explain to someone who knows no statistics why a
large sample gives more trustworthy results than a small sample.
Larger samples reduce the standard deviation of the distribution bringing the values of x
closer to the true
4. In a test for ESP (extrasensory perception), the experimenter looks at cards that are
hidden from the subject. Each card contains either a star, a circle, a wave, or a square.
As the experimenter looks at each of 20 cards in turn, the subject names the shape on the
card.
(a) Describe the design of a simulation to estimate the proportion of correct guesses
assuming the
subject does not have ESP using the partial random digits table below. Then perform
the simulation.
Four shapes p = 0.25 (1 in 4 chance guess right)
00-24 guess right
25-99 guess wrong
n = 20

3 5 4 7 6
6 0 9 4 0

5 5 9 7 2
7 2 0 2 4

5 1
0.25
20 4

3 9 4 2 1
1 7 8 6 8

6 5 8 5 0
2 4 9 4 3

0 4 2 6 6
6 1 7 9 0

3 5 4 3 5
9 0 6 5 6

5. When the ESP study described above discovers a subject whose performance appears
to be better than guessing, the study continues at greater length. The experimenter looks
at many cards bearing one of five shapes (star, square, circle, wave, and cross) in an order
determined by random numbers. The subject cannot see the experimenter as he looks at
each card in turn, in order to avoid any possible nonverbal clues. The answers of a
subject who does not have ESP should be independent observations, each with
probability 1/5 of success. We record 1000 attempts.
(a) What are the mean and standard deviation of the proportion of successes among
the 1000 attempts?
Rule 1: population is at least 10(1000)
p 0.2

p (1 p)
.2(1 .2)

0.0126
n
1000

(b) What is the probability that a subject without ESP will be successful in at least 24%
of the 1000 attempts?
Rule 2:

np 10
n(1 p) 10

1000(.2) 10
1000(.8) 10

P ( p 0.24) normalcdf (.24,1E 99, 0.2, 0.0126) 0.0008

(c) The researcher considers evidence of ESP to be a proportion of successes so large that
there is only probability 0.01 that a subject could do this well or better by guessing.
What proportion of successes must a subject have to meet this standard?
Since they are saying that the probability that it is greater is 0.01, the probability that it is
less is 0.99, therefore
invnorm(0.99)
z 2.33
p
z

p 0.2
2.33
0.0126
0.029 p 0.2
p 0.229