Probability and Statistics for Engineers and Scientists | 9th Edition

Exercises 1.1

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

Assume that the measurements are a simple random sample.

(a) What is the sample size for the above sample?

Number of measurements is recorded for the drying time gives the sample size n= 15

(b) Calculate the sample mean for these data.

We have to determine mean for the given data.

Sample mean= 3.7867

We have to find the median for the given data.

Rearranged data in increasing order is

2.5,2.8,2.8,2.9,3,3.3,3.4,3.6,3.7,4,4.4,4.8,4.8,5.2 & 5.6 .

Then sample median = 3.6

(d) Plot the data by way of a dot plot.

Eliminate the largest 20% and smallest 20% and compute the average of the remaining values
will give 20% trimmed mean.

(f) Is the sample mean for these data more or less descriptive as a center of location than
the trimmed mean?

From part (b) and part (e), the mean and trimmed means are 3.7867 and 3.6778 respectively.

Thus, the sample mean of the given data is approximately same as that of the trimmed mean.
 Exercises 1.2

According to the journal Chemical Engineering, an important property of a fiber is its water
absorbency. A random sample of 20 pieces of cotton fiber was taken and the absorbency on each
piece was measured. The following are the absorbency values:

18.71 21.41 20.72 21.81 19.29 22.43 20.17

23.71 19.44 20.50 18.92 20.33 23.00 22.85

19.25 21.77 22.11 19.77 18.04 21.12

(a) Calculate the sample mean and median for the above sample values.
(b) Compute the 10% trimmed mean.

(c) Do a dot plot of the absorbency data.

(d) Using only the values of the mean, median, and trimmed mean, do you have evidence of
outliers in the data?
 Exercises 1.3

A certain polymer is used for evacuation systems for aircraft. It is important that the polymer be
resistant to the aging process. Twenty specimens of the polymer were used in an experiment. Ten
were assigned randomly to be exposed to an accelerated batch aging process that involved
exposure to high temperatures for 10 days. Measurements of tensile strength of the specimens
were made, and the following data were recorded on tensile strength in psi:

(a) Do a dot plot of the data.

(b) From your plot, does it appear as if the aging process has had an effect on the tensile strength
of this polymer? Explain.

(c) Calculate the sample mean tensile strength of the two samples.

(d) Calculate the median for both. Discuss the similarity or lack of similarity between the mean
and median of each group.
How Do Probability and Statistical Inference Work Together?

It is important for the reader to understand the clear distinction between the discipline of
probability, a science in its own right, and the discipline of inferential statistics. As we have
already indicated, the use or application of concepts in probability allows real-life interpretation
of the results of statistical inference.

As a result, it can be said that statistical inference makes use of concepts in probability. Thus for
a statistical problem, the sample along with inferential statistics allows us to draw conclusions
about the population, with inferential statistics making clear use of elements of probability. This
reasoning is inductive in nature. Now as we move into Chapter 2 and beyond, the reader will
note that, unlike what we do in our two examples here, we will not focus on solving statistical
problems. Many examples will be given in which no sample is involved. There will be a
population clearly described with all features of the population known. Then questions of
importance will focus on the nature of data that might hypothetically be drawn from the
population. Thus, one can say that elements in probability allow us to draw conclusions about
characteristics of hypothetical data taken from the population, based on known features of the
population. This type of reasoning is deductive in nature.

Figure 1.2 shows the fundamental relationship between probability and inferential statistics.

Experimental Design

The concept of randomness or random assignment plays a huge role in the area of experimental
design, and is an important staple in almost any area of engineering or experimental science.
A set of so-called treatments or treatment combinations becomes the populations to be studied or
compared in some sense. An example would be “placebo” versus “active drug,” or in a corrosion
fatigue study we might have treatment combinations that involve specimens that are coated or
uncoated as well as conditions of low or high humidity to which the specimens are exposed.

In fact, there are four treatment or factor combinations (i.e., 4 populations), and many scientific
questions may be asked and answered through statistical and inferential methods. Simple
Random Sampling

The importance of proper sampling revolves around the degree of confidence with which the
analyst is able to answer the questions being asked. The virtue of simple random sampling is that
it aids in the elimination of the problem of having the sample reflect a different(possibly more
confined) population than the one about which inferences need to be made. For example, a
sample is to be chosen to answer certain questions regarding political preferences in a certain
state in the United States. The sample involves the choice of, say, 1000 families, and a survey is
to be conducted. Now, suppose it turns out that random sampling is not used. Rather, all or
nearly all of the 1000families chosen live in an urban setting. It is believed that political
preferences in rural areas differ from those in urban areas. In other words, the sample drawn
actually confined the population and thus the inferences need to be confined to the “limited
population,” and in this case confining may be undesirable. If, indeed, the inferences need to be
made about the state as a whole, the sample of size 1000described here is often referred to as a
biased sample.

Why Assign Experimental Units Randomly?

What is the possible negative impact of not randomly assigning experimental units to the
treatments or treatment combinations? This is seen most clearly in the case of the drug study.
Among the characteristics of the patients that produce variability in the results are age, gender,
and weight. Suppose merely by chance the placebo group contains a sample of people that are
predominately heavier than those in the treatment group. Perhaps heavier individuals have a
tendency to have a higher blood pressure. This clearly biases the result, and indeed, any result
obtained through the application of statistical inference may have little to do with the drug and
more to do with differences in weights among the two samples of patients.
We should emphasize the attachment of importance to the term variability. Excessive variability
among experimental units “camouflages” scientific findings. In future sections, we attempt to
characterize and quantify measures of variability. In sections that follow, we introduce and
discuss specific quantities that can be computed in samples; the quantities give a sense of the
nature of the sample with respect to center of location of the data and variability in the data.

Measures of Location: The Sample Mean and Median

Measures of location are designed to provide the analyst with some quantitative values of where
the center, or some other location, of data is located. One obvious and very useful measure is the
sample mean. The mean is simply a numerical average.

One important measure is the sample median. The purpose of the sample median is to reflect the
central tendency of the sample in such a way that it is uninfluenced by extreme values or outliers.

Other Measures of Locations

There are several other methods of quantifying the center of location of the detain the sample.
We will not deal with them at this point. For the most part, alternatives to the sample mean are
designed to produce values that represent compromises between the mean and the median.
Rarely do we make use of these other measures. However, it is instructive to discuss one class of
estimators, namely the class of trimmed means. A trimmed mean is computed by “trimming
away ”a certain percent of both the largest and the smallest set of values. For example, the 10%
trimmed mean is found by eliminating the largest 10% and smallest 10%and computing the
average of the remaining values. For example, in the case of the stem weight data, we would
eliminate the largest and smallest since the sample size is 10 for each sample. So for the without-
nitrogen group the 10% trimmed mean is given by

Note that in this case, as expected, the trimmed means are close to both the mean and the median
for the individual samples. The trimmed mean is, of course, more insensitive to outliers than the
sample mean but not as insensitive as the median. On the other hand, the trimmed mean
approach makes use of more information than the sample median. Note that the sample median
is, indeed, a special case of the trimmed mean in which all of the sample data are eliminated
apart from the middle one or two observations.