EXERCISE 2.

1. The mass of vitamin E in a capsule manufactured by a certain drug company is normally distributed with
standard deviation 0.042mg. A random sample of 5 capsules was analyzed and the mean mass of vitamin E was
found to be 5.12mg. Find a 95% confidence interval for the population mean mass of vitamin E per capsule. Give
an interpretation of the parameter estimate.

2. A random number of 100 pieces of wood are cut using a machine. The sample mean length is 1.06cm and the
sample standard deviation is 0.08cm.
a) Find a 90% confidence interval for the mean length of all the wood cut by the machine and interpret your answer.
b) What is the width of this confidence interval?

3. A study on a number of drills that can be made by microdrills machine is conducted. A sample of 15 microdrill
machines was drawn and the data is given as follows.

13 11 10 15 12 8 16 13 11 11 14 10 15 12 9

Find a 95% confidence interval for the mean number of drills that can be made by the microdrill machine. Give a
comment on the parameter estimate.
 4. The result of a stress test, X is known to be normally distributed random variables with mean μ and standard
deviation 1.3. It is required to have a 95% confidence interval for μ with total width less than 2. Find the least
number of tests that should be carried out to achieve this.

EXERCISE 2.3.1

1. Find the 95% confidence interval for the difference of population means of children’s sleep time and adult’s
sleep time if given that the variances for the children’s sleep time is 0.81 while for the adults is 0.25. The mean
sample sleep time for 30 children is 10 hours while for 40 adults are 7 hours. Assume that the children’s and
adult’s sleep time ae normally distributed. Give a comment on the parameter estimate.

2. The burning rates of two different solid-fuel propellants used in aircrew escape systems are being studied. It is
known that both propellants are normally distributed and have the same population variances. Two random
samples of 26 specimens for each propellant are tested. The sample mean and standard deviation of burning
rates for both propellants are summarized as in the table below.

Type of propellant Mean (cm/s) Standard deviation (cm/s)

Propellant 1 18.312 3.110
Propellant 2 24.412 2.708

Construct a 90% confidence interval for the differences in population means for propellant 2 and propellant 1. Interpret
the answer resulted.
3. The mean of sleep time for 50 of IPTS students is 7 hours with a standard deviation of 1 hour. The mean of sleep
time for 60 of IPTA students is 6 hours with a standard deviation of 0.7 hours. Assume that the sleep time for the
IPTS and IPTA students are normally distributed, find the 99% confidence interval for the difference population
means of sleep time between the IPTS and IPTA students. Interpret the answer resulted.
a) Assume the population variances are same.
b) Assume the population variances are different.

4. Two groups of students are given a problem-solving test, and the test marks are compared. The data are as
follows:

Mathematics Majors Computer Science Majors

n1 = 15 n1 = 14
̄ x = 83.6 ̄ x = 79.2
s1 = 3.3 s1 = 2.8

Find the 98% confidence interval for the difference population means of test marks between the two groups of
students. Assume the variances population test marks are not the same for both groups. Give the comment on
the parameter estimate.
 EXERCISE 2.3.2
1. Adding computerized medical images to a database promise to provide great resources for physicians. However,
there are other methods of obtaining such information, so the issue of efficiency of access needs to be
investigated. An experiment was conducted in which eight computer-proficient medical professionals were
timed (in seconds) both while retrieving an image from a library of slides and while retrieving the same image
from a computer database with a Web front end and the data are given as follows.

Subject 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Slide 30 35 40 25 20 30 35 62
digital 25 16 15 15 10 20 17 16

Assume that the time retrieving the image is normally distributed, find the 95% confidence interval for the true mean
difference between slide retrieval time and digital retrieval time. Interpret your result.

2. A sample of 38 diesel lorries was run for both hot and cold engines. A study is conducted to estimate the
difference in fuel economy. The mean difference of fuel mileage between hot and cold engines is 0.0250 litre per
km and the sample variance of the differences is 0.013 litre per km. Assume that the fuel mileage is normally
distributed, find the 98% confidence interval for the population mean difference of fuel mileage between hot
and cold engines. Give a comment on the parameter estimates.
EXAMPLE 2.9

The fraction of defective integrated circuits produced in a photolithography process is being studied. A random sample of
200 circuits is tested, revealing 13 defects.

a) Calculate a 95% confidence interval on the fraction of defective circuits produced by this process and give a
comment on the resulted confidence interval.
b) How large the sample would be if we wish to be at least 95% confident that the error in estimating the fraction of
the defective circuits produced in a photolithography process is less than 0.02?
c) Construct a 95% one-sided lower bound confidence interval on the fraction of defective circuits produced by
this process. Give an interpretation of the parameter estimate.

EXERCISE 2.4

1. The rate for the standard treatment of a disease is 45%. Dr Amani has introduced her new treatment which she
claims is much better. She tested the new treatment on 50 patients with the disease and cured 30 of them.
a) Find the sampling distribution.
b) Construct a 99% confidence interval on the cure rate of a disease for the new treatment.
c) If no estimation of the sample proportion available, how large is the samples of patient would be if we are 90%
confident that the estimation error is 5%?
 2. In a random sample of 85 automobile engine crankshaft bearings, 12% have a surface finish that meets the
roughness of specifications.
a) Construct a 98% confidence interval of bearings that do not meet the roughness of specification. Give an
interpretation of the parameter estimate.
b) How large the sample size would be if we wish to be at least 95% confident that the error in estimating the
proportion of the bearings in the population that exceeds the roughness specification is 0.02?

EXAMPLE 2.10

Two different types of injection-moulding machines are used to form plastic parts. A plastic part is considered defective if
it has excessive shrinkage or is discoloured. Two random samples, each of size 300, are selected, and 15 defective parts
are found in the sample from machine 1 while 8 defective parts are found in the sample from machine 2. Construct 98%
confidence interval for the difference in the two population proportions of the defective parts. Give an interpretation of
your answer.
EXERCISE 2.5

1. An experiment was conducted to estimate the brace force for a compression web brace. In a sample of 380
short test columns and 394 long test columns, there were found that 304 and 360 of them have overestimated
forces, respectively. Construct a 97% confidence interval for the difference of population proportions between
the overestimated forces for long and short columns. Interpret your answer.

2. The specification for the pull strength of a wire that connects an integrated circuit to its frame is 10g or more. In a
sample of 85 units made with gold wire, 68 units met the specification, while in a sample of 120 units made with
aluminum wire, 105 units met the specification. Find the 98% confidence interval for the difference between the
population proportions of circuit made with aluminum and gold wires that do not meet the specification. Give a
comment on the parameter estimate.

3. Two processes for manufacturing a certain microchip are being compared. A sample of 400 chips was selected
from a less expensive process, and 16% were found to be defective. A sample of 100 chips was selected from a
more expensive process, and 12% were found to be defective. Find a 90% confidence interval for the difference
between the population proportions of defective chips produced by the two processes. Explain your answer.
EXAMPLE 2.11

A random sample of 10 rulers produced by a machine gives a set of data below (in cm).

100.131 100.072 100.023 99.994 99.885

100.146 100.037 100.108 99.929 100.210

Find the 95% confidence interval for the population variance and standard deviation of all the rulers produced by the
machine. Give a comment on the 95% confidence interval for the population variance.

EXERCISE 2.6

1. A dairy processing company claims that the variance of the amount of fat in the whole milk processed by the
company is 0.25. A random sample of 41 milk containers is selected and gives a variance of 0.27. Construct a
95% confidence interval on the population standard deviation of the amount of fat in the whole milk. Give a
comment on the parameter estimate.

2. Ten independent measurements of the dissolution rate of a certain chemical are taken at a temperature of 10oC.
The results (in oC) are as follows.

2.28 1.66 2.56 1.96 4.63 4.56 4.42 4.79 4.26

Find the 98% confidence interval for the population variance of dissolution rate. Interpret your answer.
 3. Using data from from question (2), find the 95% one-sided lower and upper bound for the population variances
of the dissolution rate.

EXAMPLE 2.12

The machine in Example 2.11 is serviced. A random sample of 12 rulers (in cm) produced by the machine after the service
gives a set of data given as follows.

100.030 100.011 100.022 100.043 99.904 99.965

100.046 100.067 100.088 99.989 100.110 100.051

Find the 95% confidence interval for the ratio of population variances for all rulers produced by the machine before and
after the service. Hence, interpret your answer.

EXERCISE 2.7

1. Two catalysts are analyzed to determine how they affect the mean yield of a chemical process. Specifically,
Catalyst A is currently in use, but Catalyst B is acceptable. The standard deviation of seven mean yields
analyzed by Catalyst A is 2.21 while eight mean yields analyzed by Catalyst B have a standard deviation of 3.13.
Construct a 90% confidence interval for the ratio of two population variances for all the mean yields produced
by Catalyst A and Catalyst B. give a comment on the parameter estimate.
 2. Long-term exposure of textile workers to cotton dust released during processing can result in substantial health
problems. A textile researcher conducts a study to investigate the methods to reduce risks while preserving
important fabric properties. The accompanying data on roving cohesion strengths (kilo newton metre per
kilogram (kN.m/kg)) for specimens produced at eight different twist multiples is drawn for two different levels of
strength and the data are given as follows.

Control 11.83 8.24 7.17 13.25 10.86 10.12 14.63 14.04

Heated 12.15 8.32 3.86 7.50 12.48 11.13 10.18 13.79

Construct a 96% confidence interval for the ratio of two population variances for all the roving cohesion produced by
control and heated strength. Interpret your answer.

TUTORIAL 2

1. A survey of 30 adults found that the mean age of a person’s primary vehicle is 5.6 years. Assuming the standard
deviation of the population is 0.8 year, find the best point estimate of the population mean and the 90%
confidence interval of the population mean. Interpret your result.
2. The college president asks the statistics teacher to estimate the average age of the students at their college.
How large a sample is necessary? The statistics teacher would like to be 99% confident that the estimate should
be accurate within 1 year. From a previous study, the standard deviation of the ages is known to be 3 years.
Interpret your result.

3. In a study of the length of time that students require to earn bachelor’s degrees, 80 students are randomly
selected are found to have a mean of 4.8 years. Assuming that the population standard deviation is 2.2 years,
construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the population mean. Interpret your answer.

4. A random sample of 6 items taken from a normal population with mean μ and variance 4.5 cm2 gave the
following data (in cm):

12.9 13.2 14.6 12.6 11.3 10.1

a. Find the 95% confidence interval for μ. Interpret your result.

b. What is the width of this confidence interval?
5. In a random sample of 100 batteries produced by a certain method, the average lifetime was 150 hours, and the
standard deviation was 25 hours.
a) Find a 95% confidence interval for the population mean life time of batteries produced by this method.
Interpret your result.
b) Find a 99% confidence interval for the population mean life time of batteries produced by this method.
Interpret your result.
c) An engineer claims that the population mean life time is between 147 and 153 hours. With what level of
confidence can this statement be made?
d) Approximately how many batteries must be sampled so that a 95% confidence interval will specify the
population mean to within + 2 hours?
e) Approximately how many batteries must be sampled so that a 99% confidence interval will specify the
population mean to within + 2 hours?
6. The average yearly income of 28 community college instructors was RM 56718. The standard deviation was RM
650. Find the 95% confidence interval of the true mean. If a faculty member wishes to see if he or she is being
paid below average, what salary value should he or she use? Interpret your result.

7. A chemist made 8 independent measurements of the melting point of tungsten. She obtained a sample mean of
3410.14oC and a sample standard deviation of 1.018oC.
a. Find the 95% confidence interval for the melting point of tungsten. Interpret your result.
b. Find the 99% confidence interval for the melting point of tungsten. Interpret your result.
c. If the eight measurements had been 3409.76, 3409.80, 3412.66, 3409.79, 3409.76, 3409.77, 3409.80, and
3409.78, would the confidence intervals found in parts (a) and (b) be valid? Explain.
8. Three confidence intervals for the mean shear strength (in ksi) of anchor bolts of a certain type are computed, all
from the same sample. The intervals are (4.01, 6.02), (4.20, 5.83), and (3.57, 6.46). The levels of the intervals are
90%, 95% and 99%. Which interval has which level?

9. A university dean wishes to estimate the average number of hours his part-time instructors teach per week. The
standard deviation from a previous study is 2.6 hours. How large a sample must be selected if he wants to be
99% confident for finding whether the true mean differs from the sample mean by 1 hour?

10. A recent study of 28 city residents showed that the mean of time they had lived at their present address was 9.3
years. The standard deviation of the sample was 2 years. Find the 90% confidence interval of the true mean.
Interpret your result.
11. An electrical engineer wishes to compare the mean lifetimes of two types of transistors in an application
involving high-temperature performance. A sample of 60 transistors of type A was tested and was found to have
a mean lifetime of 1827 hours and a standard deviation of 168 hours. A sample of 180 transistors of type B was
tested and found to have a mean lifetime of 1658 hours and a standard deviation of 225 hours. Find a 95%
confidence interval for the difference between the mean lifetimes of the two types of transistors. Interpret your
result.
a. Assume the population variances are same
b. Assume the population variances are different

12. The carbon content (in parts per million) was measured five times for each of two different silicon wafers. The
measurement were as follows:

Wafer A 1.10 1.15 1.16 1.10 1.14

Wafer B 1.20 1.18 1.16 1.18 1.15

Find a 99% confidence interval for the difference in the population mean carbon content between the two
wafers. Interpret your result.

a. Assume the population variances are same

b. Assume the population variances are different
 13. A machine is used to fill plastic bottles with bleach. A sample of 18 bottles had a mean fill volume of 2.007 L and
a standard deviation of 0.010 L. The machine was then moved to another location. A sample of 10 bottles filed at
new location had a mean fill volume of 2.001 L and a standard deviation of 0.012 L. It is believed that moving the
machine may have changed the mean fill volume but is unlikely to have changed the standard deviation. Find a
99% confidence interval for the difference between the mean fill volumes at the two locations. Interpret your
result.
a. Assume the population variances are the same.
b. Assume the population variances are different.

14. A group of five individuals with high blood pressure were given a new drug that was designed to lower blood
pressure. Systolic blood pressure(in mmHg) was measured before and after treatment for each individual, with
the following results:

Subject 1 2 3 4 5
Before 170 164 168 158 183
After 145 132 129 135 145

Find a 99% confidence interval for the population mean reduction in systolic blood pressure. Interpret your
result.

15. Fourteen different nurses measured the blood pressure of the same patient, and then repeated the
measurement the following day. Listed below are the systolic readings in mmHg. Construct a 95% confidence
interval estimate of the population mean difference between systolic reading taken one day and those on the
following day. Interpret your result.

Day 1 138 130 135 140 120 125 120 130 144 143 140 140 130 150

Day 2 116 120 125 110 120 135 124 118 120 130 140 140 130 138
16. A civil engineer wants to compare the two instruments for measuring the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) in corn stalk. A sample of stalks is cut and crushed, and two scoops of the material taken. Once is
measured with he first instrument and the other with the second instrument. This whole process is repeated five
times. The results, in parts per billion, are as follows.

Sample No 1 2 3 4 5 6
Instrument 3 8 9 4 6 6
1
Instrument 4 7 6 3 5 5
2

Find a 95% confidence interval for the population mean difference in the instrument. Interpret your result.

17. On a certain day, a large number of fuses were manufactured, each rated at 15A. A sample of 75 fuses is drawn
from the day’s production, and 17 of them were found to have burnout amperages greater than 15A.
a) Find a 95% confidence interval for the population proportion of fuses manufactured that day, which
burnout amperage is greater than 15A. interpret your result.
b) Find a 98% confidence interval for the population proportion of fuses manufactured that day, which
burnout amperage is greater than 15A. interpret your result.
c) Find the sample size needed for a 95% confidence interval to specify the population proportion to within +
0.02?
d) Find the sample size needed for a 98% confidence interval to specify the population proportion to within +
0.02?
18. A random sample of 400 electronic components manufactured by a certain process is tested, and 30 are found
to be detective.
a. Let p present the proportion of components manufactured by this process that are defective. Find a 95%
confidence interval for π. interpret your result.
b. How many components must be sampled so that the 95% confidence interval will specify the proportion
defective to within + 0.02?

19. The following data represent the responses (Y for yes and N for no) from a sample of 40 college students to the
question “Do you currently own shares in any stocks?”

N N Y N N Y N Y N Y N N Y N Y Y N N N Y

N Y N N N N Y N N Y Y N N N Y N N Y N N

a. Determine the best point estimate for the population proportion of college students who own shares of
stock.
b. Find the sampling distribution of proportion if the population proportion of college students who own
shares of stock is 0.30.
c. Construct a 97% confidence interval of the true proportion of college students who didn’t shares of stock.
Then, comment your answer.
20. A medical researcher wishes to determine the percentage of females who take vitamins. He wishes to be 99%
confident that the estimate is within 2 percentage points of the true proportion. How large should the sample
size be? A recent study of 180 females showed that 25% took vitamins.

21. A nutritionist wishes to determine, within 2%, the true proportion of adults who snack before bedtime. If she
wishes to be 95% confident her estimate contains the population proportion, how large a sample will she need?
A previous study found that 18% of the 100 people surveyed said that they did snack before bedtime.

22. The tobacco industry closely monitors all survey that involve smoking. One survey showed that among
785 randomly selected students who completed four years of college, 18.3% are smokers.
a. Construct the 98% confidence interval for the true percentage of smokers among all students who
completed four years of college. Interpret your result.
b. Based on the result from part (a) does the smoking rate for those with four years of college appear
to be substantially different than the 27% rate for the general population?
23. In a random sample of 340 cars driven at low altitudes, 46 of them produced more than 10g of particulate
pollution per gallon of fuel consumed. In a random sample of 85 cars driven at high altitudes, 21 of them
produced more than 10g of particulate pollution per gallon of fuel consumed. Find a 98% confidence interval for
the difference between the proportions for high-altitude and low-altitude vehicles. Interpret your result.

24. Two versions of environmental questionnaires, namely A and B contained a question asking what the
respondent thought was the major cause of air pollution in this country, giving the choicest vehicles and
factories. If 170 out of 440 people answering questionnaire version B chose factories.
a. Determine the point estimate of the difference between the two population proportions of people who
chose factories.
b. Construct a 92% confidence interval of the difference between the two population proportions people who
chose vehicles. Interpret your result.
c. Construct a one-sided 90% confidence interval that gives a lower bound if there is no estimation of the
population proportion of people who answering questionnaire version B chose factories.
25. Find the 98% confidence interval for the population variance and standard deviation for the time it takes a
telephone company to transfer a call to the correct office. A sample of 15 calls has a standard deviation of 1.6
minutes. Interpret your result.

26. Find the 99% confident interval for the population variance and standard deviation for the breaking strength of
cables (in pounds) and interpret your result. A sample of 12 cables is given here.

2001 1998 2002 2000 1998 1999 1997 2005 2003 2001 1999 2006

27. An investor has developed a new, energy-efficient lawn mower engine. He claims that the engine will run
continuously for 300 minutes on a 3.7854 L of regular gasoline. From his stock of 2000 engines, the investor
selects a simple random sample of 51 engines for testing. Based on the result of an analysis, he found that the
unknown true standard deviation lies within 16.7342 and 24.8615 at 95% confidence level.
a. Determine the sample standard deviation.
b. Based on the answer in (a), construct a 99% confidence interval for the true variances of engines running
time. Then, interpret your answer.
28. A manufacturer is interested to investigate the consistency produced in his plant. In order to pursue his
objective, he has collected 9 wheels of cheese, which yielded the following weights (in kg), assume to be N (μ,
σ2).

9.7522 8.5956 8.4141 8.7997 8.6863 10.1378 10.3873 10.0698 10.4780

a. Determine the unbiased estimate of the population standard deviation of the weight of cheese.
b. Construct a 90% confidence interval for the population standard deviation of the weight of cheese.
Interpret your results.
c. Given that the 99% confidence interval for the population variance of the weight of cheese is (0.2589,
4.2288). Therefore, we can interpret that we are 99% confident that the interval (0.2589, 4.2288) contains
the population variance of the weight of cheese. Is the mentioned statement true? Justify your answer.

29. A chocolate marker produces chocolate that has a label weight of 20.4 grams. For quality assurance, 16
chocolates were selected at random from the morning shift, resulting sample mean of 21.95 grams and sample
standard deviation of 0.197. On afternoon shift, 13 chocolates were selected at random, giving a sample mean
of 21.88 grams and sample standard deviation of 0.318. find a 90% confidence interval for the ration of the
population variance of the chocolate produced by the morning and afternoon shifts.
30. Patients who undergo chronic haemodialysis often experience severe anxiety. Video tapes of progressive
relaxation exercises were shown to one group of patients and neutral video tapes to another group. Then, both
groups took the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, a psychiatric questionnaire used to measure anxiety, where higher
scores correspond to higher anxiety.

Relaxation tapes Neutral tapes

30 41 28 14 36 54 28 36
40 36 38 24 50 46 32
61 36 24 45 50 35 35
38 43 32 28 42 33 45
37 34 20 23 41 17 45
34 47 25 31 32 46 45
39 14 43 40 24 47 35
29 21 40 44 54 43

Find the 90% confidence interval for the ratio of the population variance of scores for patients who are shown
videotapes of progressive relaxation exercises and those who are showing neutral video tapes.

31. Let X and Y equal the weights of a phosphorus-free laundry detergent in a 3-kg box and a 6-kg box. Assume that
the distributions of X and Y are (μx, σ2x) and (μy, σ2y),respectively. A random sample of ten observations of X
yielded a sample mean of 2.77 kg with a sample variance of 0.0018 kg, while an independent random sample of
nine observations of Y yielded a sample mean of 5.49 kg with a sample variance of 0.0034 kg.
σ𝟐𝐱
a. Find a 95% confidence interval for
σ𝟐𝐲
σ𝟐𝐱
b. Find a one-sided 95% confidence interval that is an upper bound for
σ𝟐𝐲
FINAL EXAM QUESTION

SEMESTER I, 2010/2011

Two different brands of latex paint are being considered for use. Drying time in hours is being measured on specimen
samples of the use of the two paints. Fifteen specimens for each were selected and the drying times are given as follows.

Paint A Paint B

3.5 2.7 3.9 4.2 3.6 4.7 3.9 4.5 5.5 4.0

2.7 3.3 5.2 4.2 2.9 5.3 4.3 6.0 5.2 3.7

4.4 5.2 4.0 4.1 3.4 5.5 6.2 5.1 5.4 4.8

Assume the drying time is normally distributed with σA = σB . Find a 95% confidence interval for the difference of the true
average drying time between the two brands of paints.