Hypothesis Testing with One Sample

35 Additional Information and Full Hypothesis Test Examples



[latexpage]

  • In a hypothesis test problem, you may see words such as “the level of significance is 1%.” The “1%” is the preconceived or preset α.
  • The statistician setting up the hypothesis test selects the value of α to use before collecting the sample data.
  • If no level of significance is given, a common standard to use is α = 0.05.
  • When you calculate the p-value and draw the picture, the p-value is the area in the left tail, the right tail, or split evenly between the two tails. For this reason, we call the hypothesis test left, right, or two tailed.
  • The alternative hypothesis, H1, tells you if the test is left, right, or two-tailed. It is the key to conducting the appropriate test.
  • H1 never has a symbol that contains an equal sign.
  • Thinking about the meaning of the p-value: A data analyst (and anyone else) should have more confidence that he made the correct decision to reject the null hypothesis with a smaller p-value (for example, 0.001 as opposed to 0.04) even if using the 0.05 level for alpha. Similarly, for a large p-value such as 0.4, as opposed to a p-value of 0.056 (alpha = 0.05 is less than either number), a data analyst should have more confidence that she made the correct decision in not rejecting the null hypothesis. This makes the data analyst use judgment rather than mindlessly applying rules.

The following examples illustrate a left-, right-, and two-tailed test.

Example 8.11

Ho: μ = 5, H1: μ < 5

Test of a single population mean. H1 tells you the test is left-tailed. The picture of the p-value is as follows:

Normal distribution curve of a single population mean with a value of 5 on the x-axis and the p-value points to the area on the left tail of the curve."
Figure 8.3

Try It 8.11

H0: μ = 10, H1: μ < 10

Assume the p-value is 0.0935. What type of test is this? Draw the picture of the p-value.

Example 8.12

H0: p = 0.2  H1: p > 0.2

This is a test of a single population proportion. H1 tells you the test is right-tailed. The picture of the p-value is as follows:

Normal distribution curve of a single population proportion with the value of 0.2 on the x-axis. The p-value points to the area on the right tail of the curve.
Figure 8.4

Try It 8.12

H0: μ = 1, H1: μ > 1

Assume the p-value is 0.1243. What type of test is this? Draw the picture of the p-value.

Example 8.13

H0: p = 50  H1: p ≠ 50

This is a test of a single population mean. H1 tells you the test is two-tailed. The picture of the p-value is as follows.

Normal distribution curve of a single population mean with a value of 50 on the x-axis. The p-value formulas, 1/2(p-value), for a two-tailed test is shown for the areas on the left and right tails of the curve.
Figure 8.5

Try It 8.13

H0: p = 0.5, H1: p ≠ 0.5

Assume the p-value is 0.2564. What type of test is this? Draw the picture of the p-value.

Full Hypothesis Test Examples

Example 8.14

Jeffrey, as an eight-year old, was bragging to his friends that his average time to swim the 25-yard freestyle is less than 16.43 seconds. His friends timed his next 15 25-yard freestyle swims. For the 15 swims, Jeffrey’s mean time was 16 seconds and his standard deviation was 0.8 seconds. Can Jeffery really claim that his average swim time is less than 16.43 seconds? Conduct a hypothesis test using a preset α = 0.05. Assume that the swim times for the 25-yard freestyle are normal.

Try It 8.14

The mean throwing distance of a football for Marco, a high school freshman quarterback, is 40 yards. The team coach tells Marco to adjust his grip to get more distance. The coach records the distances for 20 throws. For the 20 throws, Marco’s mean distance was 45 yards with a standard deviation of two yards. The coach thought the different grip helped Marco throw farther than 40 yards. Conduct a hypothesis test using a preset α = 0.05. Assume the throw distances for footballs are normal.

First, determine what type of test this is, set up the hypothesis test, find the p-value, sketch the graph, and state your conclusion.

Historical Note (Example 8.11)

The traditional way to compare the two probabilities, α and the p-value, is to compare the critical value (z-score from α) to the test statistic (z-score from data). The calculated test statistic for the p-value is –2.08. (From the Central Limit Theorem, the test statistic formula is $z=\frac{\bar x -\mu_{X}}{\left(\frac{s_{X}}{\sqrt{n}}\right)}$

For this problem, $\bar x = 16$, μX = 16.43 from the null hypothes is, sX = 0.8, and n = 15.) You can find the critical value for α = 0.05 in the student-t table. The t-score for an area to the left equal to 0.05 and degrees of freedom 14 is -1.761. Since –1.761 > –2.08 (which demonstrates that α > p-value), reject H0. Traditionally, the decision
to reject or not reject was done in this way. Today, comparing the two probabilities α and the p-value is very common. For this problem, the p-value, 0.0281 is considerably smaller than α, 0.05. You can be confident about your decision to reject. The graph shows α, the p-value, and the test statistic and the critical value.


Distribution curve comparing the α to the p-value. Values of -2.15 and -1.645 are on the x-axis. Vertical upward lines extend from both of these values to the curve. The p-value is equal to 0.0158 and points to the area to the left of -2.15. α is equal to 0.05 and points to the area between the values of -2.15 and -1.645.
Figure 8.7

Example 8.15

A college football coach claims mean weight that his players can bench press is more than 275 pounds. His players wanted to test that claim. They asked 30 of their teammates for their estimated maximum lift on the bench
press exercise. The data ranged from 205 pounds to 385 pounds. The actual reported weights are listed in the table below:

205 225 265 316 341
205 241 275 316 345
205 241 275 316 345
215 252 313 316 368
215 252 313 338 368
215 265 316 338 385
Table 8.15

Conduct a hypothesis test using a 2.5% level of significance to determine if the bench press mean is more than 275 pounds.

Example 8.16

Statistics students believe that the mean score on the first statistics test is 65. A statistics instructor thinks the mean score is higher than 65. He samples ten statistics students and obtains the scores

65
65
70
67
66
63
63
68
72
71

He performs a hypothesis test using a 5% level of significance. The data are assumed to be from a normal distribution.

Try It 8.16

It is believed that a stock price for a particular company will grow at a rate of \$5 per week with a standard deviation of \$1. An investor believes the stock won’t grow as quickly. The changes in stock price is recorded for ten weeks and are as follows: \$4, \$3, \$2, \$3, \$1, \$7, \$2, \$1, \$1, \$2. Perform a hypothesis test using a 5% level of significance. State the null and alternative hypotheses, find the p-value, state your conclusion, and identify the Type I and Type II errors.

Example 8.17

Joon believes that 50% of first-time brides in the United States are younger than their grooms. She performs a hypothesis test to determine if the percentage is the same or different from 50%. Joon samples 100 first-time brides and 53 reply that they are younger than their grooms. For the hypothesis test, she uses a 1% level of
significance.

Try It 8.17

A teacher believes that 85% of students in the class will want to go on a field trip to the local zoo. She performs a hypothesis test to determine if the percentage is the same or different from 85%. The teacher samples 50 students and 39 reply that they would want to go to the zoo. For the hypothesis test, use a 1% level of significance.

First, determine what type of test this is, set up the hypothesis test, find the p-value, sketch the graph, and state your conclusion.

Example 8.18

Suppose a consumer group suspects that the proportion of households that have three cell phones is 30%. A cell phone company has reason to believe that the proportion is not 30%. Before they start a big advertising campaign, they conduct a hypothesis test. Their marketing people survey 150 households with the result that 43 of the households have three cell phones.

Try It 8.18

Marketers believe that 92% of adults in the United States own a cell phone. A cell phone manufacturer believes that number is actually lower. 200 American adults are surveyed, of which, 174 report having cell phones. Use a 5% level of significance. State the null and alternative hypothesis, find the p-value, state your conclusion, and identify the Type I and Type II errors.

The next example is a poem written by a statistics student named Nicole Hart. The solution to the problem follows the poem. Notice that the hypothesis test is for a single population proportion. This means that the null and alternate hypotheses use the parameter p. The distribution for the test is normal. The estimated proportion $\hat p$ is the proportion of fleas killed to the total fleas found on Fido. This is sample information. The problem gives a preconceived α = 0.01, for comparison, and a 95% confidence interval computation. The poem is clever and humorous, so please enjoy it!

Example 8.19

My dog has so many fleas,

They do not come off with ease.

As for shampoo, I have tried many types

Even one called Bubble Hype,

Which only killed 25% of the fleas,

Unfortunately I was not pleased.

I’ve used all kinds of soap,

Until I had given up hope

Until one day I saw

An ad that put me in awe.

A shampoo used for dogs

Called GOOD ENOUGH to Clean a Hog

Guaranteed to kill more fleas.

I gave Fido a bath

And after doing the math

His number of fleas

Started dropping by 3’s!

Before his shampoo

I counted 42.

At the end of his bath,

I redid the math

And the new shampoo had killed 17 fleas.

So now I was pleased.

Now it is time for you to have some fun

With the level of significance being .01,

You must help me figure out

Use the new shampoo or go without?

Example 8.20

The National Institute of Standards and Technology provides exact data on conductivity properties of materials. Following are conductivity measurements for 11 randomly selected pieces of a particular type of glass.

1.11; 1.07; 1.11; 1.07; 1.12; 1.08; .98; .98 1.02; .95; .95

Is there convincing evidence that the average conductivity of this type of glass is greater than one? Use a significance level of 0.05. Assume the population is normal.

Example 8.21

In a study of 420,019 cell phone users, 172 of the subjects developed brain cancer. Test the claim that cell phone users developed brain cancer at a greater rate than that for non-cell phone users (the rate of brain cancer for non-cell phone users is 0.0340%). Since this is a critical issue, use a 0.005 significance level. Explain why the significance level should be so low in terms of a Type I error.

Example 8.22

According to the US Census there are approximately 268,608,618 residents aged 12 and older. Statistics from the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network indicate that, on average, 207,754 rapes occur each year (male and female) for persons aged 12 and older. This translates into a percentage of sexual assaults of 0.078%. In Daviess County, KY, there were reported 11 rapes for a population of 37,937. Conduct an appropriate hypothesis test to determine if there is a statistically significant difference between the local sexual assault percentage and the national sexual assault percentage. Use a significance level of 0.01.

License