EXERCISES

1 A test program was conducted to evaluate the quality of epoxyglass-fiber

pipes. The test program required sixteen pipes, half of which were
manufactured at each of two manufacturing plants. Each pipe was produced
under one of two operating conditions at one of two water temperatures. The
following test conditions constituted the experimental protocol:

Identify which of the following statistical design features are included in the
test program:
(a) Factor(s) The factors in this test program are the Plant (Qualitative), the
Operating Conditions (Qualitative) and the Water Temp. (Quantitative).
(b) Factor levels - The factor levels are 1 or 2 in Plant, Normal or Severe in
Operating Conditions and 150 or 175 in Water Temperature.
(c) Blocks There are no blocks in this test program. An example of a block
could be a field layout of an agricultural experiment divided in 3 blocks.
Definition of blocks: Group of homogeneous experimental units.
(d) Experimental units First, an experimental unit is defined as either a
measurement or material on which a measurement is made. In this case I can
conclude that the experimental units are the sixteen pipes.
(e) Repeat tests The definition of repeat tests is: Two or more observations
that have the same levels for all the factors. The run number 1 with 5, run
number 6 with 2, run number 9 with 5, run number 11 with 7, etc.
(f) Replications We define replication as a repetition of an entire
experiment or a portion of an experiment under two or more set of conditions.
There are no replications.
(g) Test runs First, a test run is a single combination of factor levels that
yields an observation on the response. In the example we have 16 test runs.

(h) Covariate(s) - The experiment does not mention any covariate variable. A
covariate is an uncontrollable variable that influences the response but is
unaffected by any other experimental factors.

2 An accelerator for the hydration and hardening of cement is being developed

to aid in the structural construction and integrity of bridge trusses. Two mixes
of fast-setting cement were tested by measuring the compressive strength (psi)
of five 2-inch cubes of mortar, 24 hours after setting. This experiment was
conducted twice and the following measurements of compressive strength
were determined:

Identify which of the statistical design features (a) to (h) of Exercise 1 occur in
this experiment.
(a) Factor(s) The only factor here I think is the Compressive Strength
(b) Factor levels There are no factor levels because the Mix A and Mix B are
subjected to the same compressive Strength
(c) Blocks There are no blocks in this test program
(d) Experimental units The experimental units are the Mix A and Mix B
(e) Repeat tests I think there are no repeat tests
(f) Replications We have 2 replications
(g) Test runs We have 10 test runs divided in 2 experiments
(h) Covariate(s) - The experiment does not mention any covariate variable.
Perhaps, the humidity could be a covariate in this experiment. We could ensure
that the humidity does not play an important role in the experiment controlling
it in a special location where the experiment could develop.

3 An experiment is to be designed to study the effects of several factors on the

quality of electronic signals transmitted over telephone lines. The factors of
interest are the baud rate (speed of transmission), signal intensity, and
type of transmission device. The project leader elects to investigate baud
rates from 300 to 9600 bps in increments of 100 bps, three different signal
intensities, and two of three transmission devices. The use of only two
transmission devices is necessitated by the cost of the project. The projected
costs for the experimentation are estimated to be $500 for each baud rate,
$2000 for each signal intensity, and $10,000 for each transmission device.
These costs are primarily for equipment, personnel, and data processing
and are largely unaffected by the number of test runs in the experiment.
Identify the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed experiment.
Suggest remedies for the disadvantages.
Well, first the disadvantages of this experiment first is the financing of the
project. If we apply the technique that consists in changing one factor and
maintain the rest in order, it would take many time and efforts experimenting
by different combinations and therefore we will take a lot of time finding the
best combination and setting different levels on each variable. Another
disadvantages is that we only have two transmission device. Also it depends of
the goals of the researcher, but the fact of comparing just two devices will not
be as efficient as the comparison of three devices.
The few advantages that I could imagine is that every variable could be
controlled like the speed of transmission, signal intensity and of course the
type of transmission device. Maybe they are covariates present for example in
the signal intensity which it could change depending of the position but we can
control it if we get the measure at an exact period of time when the signal is
low, in the middle or high.
Also my suggestion is that if our goal is to get the best quality of electronic
signals, we can eliminate the rates of 300 to 9600 to maybe 5000 to 9600, just
if we know about the experiment and the effects of the speed of transmission
because if the baud rates of 500 is not beneficial for the improvement of
quality signals, we should not waste our time experimenting with that level
factor.

4 Automobile emission-control systems are known to deteriorate as a vehicle is

used. A concern in many experiments is that emission results may be affected
by how far test vehicles have previously been driven prior to being tested.
Below are carbon monoxide (CO) emissions for several test runs (under
identical conditions) for each of three automobiles. Also recorded are the
odometer mileages (MILES) at the start of each test run. Use a scatterplot with
different symbols for each vehicle to assess whether initial mileage should be
used as a covariate in a test program involving these three vehicles.

Conclusion:
The blue dots represent vehicle 1, the orange dots represent vehicle 2 and the
gray dots represent the vehicle 3. In my opinion according to the problem we
should threat the initial mileage as a covariate because the scatter shows that
if the car have more mile the CO increase otherwise when the mile of the car is
few the CO emission reduces.