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ASSIGNMENT 56
SPRING SEMESTER 2015
ME 201/ES 202 - ENGINEERING STATISTICS
1. Two brands of refrigerators, denoted A and B, are each guaranteed for 1 year. In
a random sample of 50 refrigerators of brand A, 12 were observed to fail before
the guarantee period ended. An independent random sample of 60 brand B refrigerators also revealed 12 failures during the guarantee period. Estimate the true
difference (p1 p2 ) between proportions of failures during the guarantee period,
with confidence coefficient approximately 0.98.
Answer:

0.04 0.1851 or (0.1451, 0.2251) .

2. Refer to previous problem 1.

(a) At the approximate 98% confidence level, what is the largest believable value
for the difference in the proportions of failures for refrigerators of brands A
and B?
(b) At the approximate 98% confidence level, what is the smallest believable
value for the difference in the proportions of failures for refrigerators of brands
A and B?
(c) If p1 p2 actually equals 0.2251, which brand has the larger proportion of
failures during the warranty period? How much larger?
(d) If p1 p2 actually equals -0.1451, which brand has the larger proportion of
failures during the warranty period larger? How much larger?
(e) As observed in Problem 1, zero is a believable value of the difference. Would
you conclude that there is evidence of a difference in the proportions of failures
(within the warranty period) for the two brands of refrigerators?
Answer:

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

3. An experimenter wanted to check the variability of measurements obtained by using

equipment designed to measure the volume of an audio source. Three independent
measurements recorded by this equipment for the same sound were 4.1, 5.2, and
10.2. Estimate 2 with confidence coefficient 0.90.
Answer:

(3.53, 205.24)

4. The ages of a random sample of five university professors are 39, 54, 61, 72, and 59.
Using this information, find a 99% confidence interval for the population standard
deviation of the ages of all professors at the university, assuming that the ages of
university professors are normally distributed.
Answer:

5. A random sample of size 25 was taken from a normal population with 2 = 6. A

confidence interval for the mean was given as (5.37, 7.37). What is the confidence
coefficient associated with this interval?
Answer:

1 2 (0.0207) = 0.9586

6. To estimate the proportion of unemployed workers in Panama, an economist selected at random 400 persons from the working class. Of these, 25 were unemployed.
(a) Estimate the true proportion of unemployed workers and place bounds on the
error of estimation.
(b) How many persons must be sampled to reduce the bound on the error of
estimation to 0.02?
Answer:

(a) 0.0625 0.0237

(b) 563

7. How many voters must be included in a sample collected to estimate the fraction of
the popular vote favorable to a presidential candidate in a national election if the
estimate must be correct to within 0.005? Assume that the true fraction lies somewhere in the neighborhood of 0.5. Use a confidence coefficient of approximately 0.95.
Answer:

n = 38, 416

8. The annual main stem growth, measured for a sample of 17 4-year-old red pine
trees, produced a mean of 11.3 inches and a standard deviation of 3.4 inches. Find
a 90% confidence interval for the mean annual main stem growth of a population
of 4-year-old red pine trees subjected to similar environmental conditions. Assume
that the growth amounts are normally distributed.
Answer:

11.3 1.44 = (9.86, 12.74)

9. A pharmaceutical manufacturer purchases raw material from two different suppliers. The mean level of impurities is approximately the same for both suppliers, but
the manufacturer is concerned about the variability in the amount of impurities
from shipment to shipment. If the level of impurities tends to vary excessively for
one source of supply, this could affect the quality of the final product. To compare the variation in percentage impurities for the two suppliers, the manufacturer
selects ten shipments from each supplier and measures the percentage of impurities in each shipment. The sample variances were s21 = 0.273 and s22 = 0.094,
respectively. Form a 95% confidence interval for the ratio of the true population
variances. Answer:
10. In a local election campaign, we wish to test the claim of candidate A that he
is winning. Let p be the population ratio of voters favoring A. We wish to test
H0 : p = 0.5 against the alternative, Ha : p < 0.5. A sample of n = 15 voters was
chosen at random and their voting preferences were noted. The test statistic is x,
the number of sampled voters favoring candidate A and we reject H0 if x 2.
(a) Calculate the value of if A will receive only 10% of the votes (p = 0.1).
2

(b) Now assume that RR = {x 5}. Calculate the level of the test and calculate
if p = 0.3
Answer:

(a) = 0.184

(b) = 0.151, = 0.278

11. An experimenter has prepared a drug dosage level that she claims will induce sleep
for 80% of people suffering from insomnia. After examining the dosage, we feel that
her claims regarding the effectiveness of the dosage are inflated. In an attempt to
disprove her claim, we administer her prescribed dosage to 20 insomniacs and we
observe X, the number for whom the drug dose induces sleep. We wish to test the
hypothesis H0 : p = 0.8 versus the alternative, Ha : p 0.8. Assume that the
rejection region {x 12} is used.
(a) Find the rejection region of the form {x c} so that 0.01.
(b) For the rejection region in part (a), find when p = 0.6.
(c) For the rejection region in part (a), find when p = 0.4.
Answer:

(a) c = 11

(b) = 0.596

(c) = 0.057

12. A machine in a factory must be repaired if it produces more than 10% defectives
among the large lot of items that it produces in a day. A random sample of 100
items from the days production contains 15 defectives, and the supervisor says that
the machine must be repaired. Does the sample evidence support his decision? Use
a test with level 0.01.
Answer: z = 1.667 is not in the rejection region {z > 2.33}. Do not reject
H0 : p = 0.10. The evidence does not support the supervisors decision.
13. The output voltage for an electric circuit is specified to be 130. A sample of 40
independent readings on the voltage for this circuit gave a sample mean 128.6 and
standard deviation 2.1. Test the hypothesis that the average output voltage is 130
against the alternative that it is less than 130. Use a test with level 0.05.
Answer:
14. A manufacturer of automatic washers offers a model in one of three colors: A, B,
or C. Of the first 1000 washers sold, 400 were of color A. Would you conclude that
customers have a preference for color A? Justify your answer.
Answer:

z = 4.47

15. Muzzle velocities of eight shells were tested with a new gunpowder. The sample
mean and sample standard deviation were y = 2959 and s = 39.1. The manufacturer claims that the new gunpowder produces an average velocity of not less than
3000 feet per second. Do the sample data provide sufficient evidence to contradict
the manufacturers claim at the 0.025 level of significance?
Answer: Yes, sufficient evidence exists to contradict the manufacturers claim
at the 0.025 level of significance.

16. A chemical process has produced, on the average, 800 tons of chemical per day.
The daily yields for the past week are 785, 805, 790, 793, and 802 tons. Do these
data indicate that the average yield is less than 800 tons and hence that something
is wrong with the process? Test at the 5% level of significance.
Answer:

t = 1.341, fails to reject H0

17. A company produces machined engine parts that are supposed to have a diameter
variance 2 no larger than 0.0002 (diameters measured in inches). A random sample of ten parts gave a sample variance of 0.0003. Test, whether 2 exceeds 0.0002
at the 5% level of significance.
Answer: H0 is not rejected. There is not sufficient evidence to indicate that
2 exceeds 0.0002 at the 5% level of significance.
18. Suppose that we wish to compare the variation in diameters of parts produced by
the company A with the variation in diameters of parts produced by a competitor.
The sample variance for our company A, based on n = 10 diameters, is s21 = 0.0003.
In contrast, the sample variance of the diameter measurements for 20 of the competitors parts is s22 = .0001. Do the data provide sufficient information to indicate
a smaller variation in diameters for the competitor? Test with = 0.05.
Answer: F = 3 > F.05 = 2.42; therefore, at the = 0.05 level, we reject
H0 : 12 = 22 in favor of Ha : 12 > 22 and conclude that the competing company
produces parts with smaller variation in their diameters.
19. Aptitude tests should produce scores with a large amount of variation so that an
administrator can distinguish between persons with low aptitude and high aptitude. The standard test used by a certain industry has been producing scores with
a standard deviation of 10 points. A new test is given to 20 prospective employees
and produces a sample standard deviation of 12 points. Are scores from the new
test significantly more variable than scores from the standard? Use = 0.01.
Answer:
20. How much combustion efficiency should a homeowner expect from an oil furnace?
The EPA states that 80% or higher is excellent, 75% to 79% is good, 70% to 74%
is fair, and below 70% is poor. A home-heating contractor who sells two makes
of oil heaters (call them A and B) decided to compare their mean efficiencies by
analyzing the efficiencies of 8 heaters of type A and 6 of type B. The resulting
efficiency ratings in percentages for the 14 heaters are shown below:
Type A:
Type B:

72 78 73 69 75 74
78 76 81 74 82 75

69

75

(a) Do the data provide sufficient evidence to indicate a difference in mean efficiencies for the two makes of home heaters?
(b) Find a 90% confidence interval for (A B ) and interpret the result.
Answer:

(a) t = 2.657

(b) 4.542 3.046