Edexcel

Statistics 3

Hypothesis Testing

Edited by: K V Kumaran

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1. A random sample of 100 classical CDs produced by a record company had a mean playing
time of 70.6 minutes and a standard deviation of 9.1 minutes. An independent random sample
of 120 CDs produced by a different company had a mean playing time of 67.2 minutes with a
standard deviation of 8.4 minutes.

(a) Using a 1% level of significance, test whether or not there is a difference in the mean
playing times of the CDs produced by these two companies. State your hypotheses clearly.
(8)
(b) State an assumption you made in carrying out the test in part (a).
(1)
Q2, May 2002

2. The weights of tubs of margarine are known to be normally distributed. A random sample of
10 tubs of margarine were weighed, to the nearest gram, and the results were as follows.

498 502 500 496 509 504 511 497 506 499

(a) Find unbiased estimates of the mean and the variance of the population from which this
sample was taken.
(5)
Given that the population standard deviation is 5.0 g,

(b) estimate limits, to 2 decimal places, between which 90% of the weights of the tubs lie,
(2)
(c) find a 95% confidence interval for the mean weight of the tubs.
(5)
A second random sample of 15 tubs was found to have a mean weight of 501.9 g.

(d) Stating your hypotheses clearly and using a 1% level of significance, test whether or not
the mean weight of these tubs is greater than 500 g.

(5)
Q7, May 2002

3. A scientist monitored the levels of river pollution near a factory. Before the factory was closed
down she took 100 random samples of water from different parts of the river and found an
average weight of pollutants of 10 mg l1 with a standard deviation of 2.64 mg l1. After the
factory was closed down the scientist collected a further 120 random samples and found that
they contained 8 mg l1 of pollutants on average with a standard deviation of 1.94 mg l1.

Test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not the mean river pollution fell after the
factory closed down.
(11)

Q5, June 2003

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4. It is known from past evidence that the weight of coffee dispensed into jars by machine A is
normally distributed with mean A and standard deviation 2.5 g. Machine B is known to
dispense the same nominal weight of coffee into jars with mean B and standard deviation 2.3
g. A random sample of 10 jars filled by machine A contained a mean weight of 249 g of coffee.
A random sample of 15 jars filled by machine B contained a mean weight of 251 g.

(a) Test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not there is evidence that the population
mean weight dispensed by machine B is greater than that of machine A.
(7)
(b) Write down an assumption needed to carry out this test.
(1)
Q3, June 2004
5. Upon entering a school, a random sample of eight girls and an independent random sample of
eighty boys were given the same examination in mathematics. The girls and boys were then
taught in separate classes. After one year, they were all given another common examination in
mathematics.
The means and standard deviations of the boys’ and the girls’ marks are shown in the table.

Examination marks
Upon entry After 1 year
Standard Standard
Mean Mean
deviation deviation
Boys 50 12 59 6
Girls 53 12 62 6

You may assume that the test results are normally distributed.
(a) Test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not the difference between the means of
the boys’ and girls’ results was significant when they entered school.
(7)
(b) Test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not the mean mark of the boys is
significantly less than the mean mark of the girls in the ‘After 1 year’ examination.
(5)
(c) Interpret the results found in part (a) and part (b).
(1)
Q5, Jan 2006
6. A biologist investigated whether or not the diet of chickens influenced the amount of
cholesterol in their eggs. The cholesterol content of 70 eggs selected at random from chickens
fed diet A had a mean value of 198 mg and a standard deviation of 47 mg. A random sample
of 90 eggs from chickens fed diet B had a mean cholesterol content of 201 mg and a standard
deviation of 23 mg.

(a) Stating your hypotheses clearly and using a 5% level of significance, test whether or not
there is a difference between the mean cholesterol content of eggs laid by chickens fed on
these two diets.
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 (7)
(b) State, in the context of this question, an assumption you have made in carrying out the test
in part (a). (2)
Q3, June 2006
7. The time, in minutes, it takes Robert to complete the puzzle in his morning newspaper each
day is normally distributed with mean 18 and standard deviation 3. After taking a holiday,
Robert records the times taken to complete a random sample of 15 puzzles and he finds that
the mean time is 16.5 minutes. You may assume that the holiday has not changed the standard
deviation of times taken to complete the puzzle.

Stating your hypotheses clearly test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not there has
been a reduction in the mean time Robert takes to complete the puzzle.
(7)
Q3, June 2007
8. A sociologist is studying how much junk food teenagers eat. A random sample of 100 female
teenagers and an independent random sample of 200 male teenagers were asked to estimate
what their weekly expenditure on junk food was. The results are summarised below.

n mean s.d.

Female teenagers 100 £5.48 £3.62

Male teenagers 200 £6.86 £4.51

(a) Using a 5% significance level, test whether or not there is a difference in the mean amounts
spent on junk food by male teenagers and female teenagers. State your hypotheses clearly.
(7)
(b) Explain briefly the importance of the central limit theorem in this problem.
(1)
Q7, June 2008
9. The lengths of a random sample of 120 limpets taken from the upper shore of a beach had a
mean of 4.97 cm and a standard deviation of 0.42 cm. The lengths of a second random sample
of 150 limpets taken from the lower shore of the same beach had a mean of 5.05 cm and a
standard deviation of 0.67 cm.

(a) Test, using a 5% level of significance, whether or not the mean length of limpets from the
upper shore is less than the mean length of limpets from the lower shore. State your
hypotheses clearly. (8)
(b) State two assumptions you made in carrying out the test in part (a). (2)
Q6, June 2009
10. A report states that employees spend, on average, 80 minutes every working day on personal
use of the Internet. A company takes a random sample of 100 employees and finds their mean
personal Internet use is 83 minutes with a standard deviation of 15 minutes. The company’s
managing director claims that his employees spend more time on average on personal use of
the Internet than the report states.
Test, at the 5% level of significance, the managing director’s claim. State your hypotheses
clearly. (7)
Q1, June 2010
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11. A large company surveyed its staff to investigate the awareness of company policy. The
company employs 6000 full-time staff and 4000 part-time staff.

(a) Describe how a stratified sample of 200 staff could be taken.

(3)
(b) Explain an advantage of using a stratified sample rather than a simple random sample.
(1)

A random sample of 80 full-time staff and an independent random sample of 80 part-time staff
were given a test of policy awareness. The results are summarised in the table below.

Variance of
Mean score ( x )
scores (s2)
Full-time staff 52 21

Part-time staff 50 19

(c) Stating your hypotheses clearly, test, at the 1% level of significance, whether or not the
mean policy awareness scores for full-time and part-time staff are different.
(7)
(d) Explain the significance of the Central Limit Theorem to the test in part (c).
(2)
(e) State an assumption you have made in carrying out the test in part (c).
(1)

After all the staff had completed a training course the 80 full time staff and the 80 part-time
staff were given another test of policy awareness. The value of the test statistic z was 2.53.

(f ) Comment on the awareness of company policy for the full-time and part-time staff in light
of this result. Use a 1% level of significance.
(2)
(g) Interpret your answers to part (c) and part (f ).
(1)
Q1, June 2010

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12. A shop manager wants to find out if customers spend more money when music is playing in
the shop. The amount of money spent by a customer in the shop is £x. A random sample of 80
customers, who were shopping without music playing, and an independent random sample of
60 customers, who were shopping with music playing, were surveyed. The results of both
samples are summarised in the table below.

Unbiased Unbiased
x x 2
estimate of estimate of
mean variance

Customers
shopping 5 320 392 000 x s2
without music

Customers
shopping with 4 140 312 000 69.0 446.44
music

(a) Find the values of x and s2.

(5)
(b) Test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not the mean money spent is greater when
music is playing in the shop. State your hypotheses clearly.
(8)
Q4, June 2011
13. Roastie’s Coffee is sold in packets with a stated weight of 250 g. A supermarket manager
claims that the mean weight of the packets is less than the stated weight. She weighs a random
sample of 90 packets from their stock and finds that their weights have a mean of 248 g and a
standard deviation of 5.4 g.
(a) Using a 5% level of significance, test whether or not the manager’s claim is justified. State
your hypotheses clearly.
(5)
(b) Find the 98% confidence interval for the mean weight of a packet of coffee in the
supermarket’s stock.
(4)
(c) State, with a reason, the action you would recommend the manager to take over the weight
of a packet of Roastie’s Coffee.
(2)
Roastie’s Coffee company increase the mean weight of their packets to μ g and reduce the
standard deviation to 3 g. The manager takes a sample of size n from these new packets. She
uses the sample mean X as an estimator of μ.
(d) Find the minimum value of n such that P( X − μ  <1)  0.98.
(5)
Q7, June 2011

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14. Mr Allan and Ms Burns are two mathematics teachers teaching mixed ability groups of students
in a large college. At the end of the college year all students took the same examination.
A random sample of 29 of Mr Allan’s students and a random sample of 26 of Ms Burns’
students are chosen. The results are summarised in the table below.

Sample Size, n Mean, x Standard Deviation, s

Mr Allan 29 80 10
Ms Burns 26 74 15

(a) Stating your hypothesis clearly, test, at the 10% level of significance, whether there is
evidence that there is a difference in the means scores of their students.
(6)
Ms Burns thinks the comparison was unfair as the examination was set by Mr Allan. She looks
up a different set of examination marks for these students and, although Mr Allan’s sample has
a higher mean, she calculates the test statistic for this new set of results to be 1.6.
However, Mr Allan now claims that the mean marks of his students are higher than the mean
marks of Ms Burns’ students.
(b) Test Mr Allan’s claim, stating the hypothesis and critical values you would use. Use a 10%
level of significance.
(3)
Q5, June 2012
15. Fruit-n-Veg4U Market Gardens grow tomatoes. They want to improve their yield of tomatoes
by at least 1 kg per plant by buying a new variety. The variance of the yield of the old variety
of plant is 0.5 kg2 and the variance of the yield for the new variety of plant is 0.75 kg2. A
random sample of 60 plants of the old variety has a mean yield of 5.5 kg. A random sample of
70 of the new variety has a mean yield of 7 kg.
(a) Stating your hypotheses clearly test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not there
is evidence that the mean yield of the new variety is more than 1 kg greater than the mean
yield of the old variety. (9)
(b) Explain the relevance of the Central Limit Theorem to the test in part (a). (2)
Q6, June 2013
16. A farmer monitored the amount of lead in soil in a field next to a factory.
He took 100 samples of soil, randomly selected from different parts of the field, and found the
mean weight of lead to be 67 mg/kg with standard deviation 25 mg/kg.
After the factory closed, the farmer took 150 samples of soil, randomly selected from different
parts of the field, and found the mean weight of lead to be 60 mg/kg with standard deviation
10 mg/kg.

(a) Test at the 5% level of significance whether or not the mean weight of lead in the soil
decreased after the factory closed. State your hypotheses clearly.
(7)
(b) Explain the significance of the Central Limit Theorem to the test in part (a).
(1)
(c) State an assumption you have made to carry out this test.
(1)
Q7, June 2013_R

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17. A machine fills packets with X grams of powder where X is normally distributed with mean μ.
Each packet is supposed to contain 1 kg of powder.

To comply with regulations, the weight of powder in a randomly selected packet should be
such that P(X < μ – 30) = 0.0005.

(a) Show that this requires the standard deviation to be 9.117 g to 3 decimal places.
(3)

A random sample of 10 packets is selected from the machine. The weight, in grams, of powder
in each packet is as follows:

999.8 991.6 1000.3 1006.1 1008.2 997.0 993.2 1000.0 997.1 1002.1

(b) Assuming that the standard deviation of the population is 9.117 g, test, at the 1%
significance level, whether or not the machine is delivering packets with mean weight of
less than 1 kg. State your hypotheses clearly.
(7)
Q7, May 2014
18. A student believes that there is a difference in the mean lengths of English and French films.
He goes to the university video library and randomly selects a sample of 120 English films and
a sample of 70 French films. He notes the length, x minutes, of each of the films in his samples.
His data are summarised in the table below.

Σx Σx2 s2 n
English films 10650 956909 98.5 120
French films 6510 615849 151 70

(a) Verify that the unbiased estimate of the variance, s2, of the lengths of English films is 98.5
minutes2.
(2)
(b) Stating your hypotheses clearly, test, at the 1% level of significance, whether or not the
mean lengths of English and French films are different.
(7)
(c) Explain the significance of the Central Limit Theorem to the test in part (b).
(1)
(d) The university video library contained 724 English films and 473 French films. Explain
how the student could have taken a stratified sample of 190 of these films.
(3)

Q5, May 2014_R

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19. A researcher believes that the mean weight loss of those people using a slimming plan as part
of a group is more than 1.5 kg a year greater than the mean weight loss of those using the plan
on their own. The mean weight loss of a random sample of 80 people using the plan as part of
a group is 8.7 kg with a standard deviation of 2.1 kg. The mean weight loss of a random sample
of 65 people using the plan on their own is 6.6 kg with a standard deviation of 1.4 kg.

(a) Stating your hypotheses clearly, test the researcher’s claim. Use a 1% level of significance.
(8)

(b) For the test in part (a), state whether or not it is necessary to assume that the weight loss
of a person using this plan has a normal distribution. Give a reason for your answer.
(2)
Q2, May 2015
20. A doctor claims there is a higher mean lung capacity in people who exercise regularly
compared to people who do not exercise regularly. He measures the lung capacity, x, of 35
people who exercise regularly and 42 people who do not exercise regularly. His results are
summarised in the table below.

n x s2
Exercise regularly 35 26.3 12.2
Do not exercise regularly 42 24.8 10.1

(a) Test, at the 5% level of significance, the doctor’s claim. State your hypotheses clearly.
(6)
(b) State any assumptions you have made in testing the doctor’s claim.
(2)

The doctor decides to add another person who exercises regularly to his data. He measures the
person’s lung capacity and finds x = 31.7.
(c) Find the unbiased estimate of the variance for the sample of 36 people who exercise
regularly. Give your answer to 3 significant figures.
(4)
Q5, May 2016
21. An engineer has developed a new battery. She claims that the new battery will last more
than 8 hours longer, on average, than the old battery. To test the claim, the engineer
randomly selects a sample of 50 new batteries and 40 old batteries. She records how long
each battery lasts, x hours for the new batteries and y hours for the old batteries. The
results are summarised in the table below.

n Sample mean s2
New battery 50 x = 83 7
Old battery 40 y = 74 6

(a) Test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not there is evidence to support the
engineer’s claim. State your hypotheses and show your working clearly.
(7)
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 (b) Explain the relevance of the Central Limit Theorem to the test in part (a).
(2)
Q6, May 2017
22. A machine fills packets with X grams of powder where X is normally distributed with mean μ.
Each packet is supposed to contain 1 kg of powder.
To comply with regulations, the weight of powder in a randomly selected packet should be
such that P(X < μ – 30) = 0.0005.

(a) Show that this requires the standard deviation to be 9.117 g to 3 decimal places.
(3)
A random sample of 10 packets is selected from the machine. The weight, in grams, of powder
in each packet is as follows:

999.8 991.6 1000.3 1006.1 1008.2 997.0 993.2 1000.0 997.1 1002.1

(b) Assuming that the standard deviation of the population is 9.117 g, test, at the 1%
significance level, whether or not the machine is delivering packets with mean weight of
less than 1 kg. State your hypotheses clearly.
(7)
IAL, Q7, May 2014
23. As part of an investigation, a random sample was taken of 50 footballers who had completed
an obstacle course in the early morning. The time taken by each of these footballers to complete
the obstacle course, x minutes, was recorded and the results are summarised by

 x  1570 and x 2
 49 467.58

(a) Find unbiased estimates for the mean and variance of the time taken by footballers to
complete the obstacle course in the early morning.
(4)

An independent random sample was taken of 50 footballers who had completed the same
obstacle course in the late afternoon. The time taken by each of these footballers to complete
the obstacle course, y minutes, was recorded and the results are summarised as

y  30.9 and s y2  3.03

(b) Test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not the mean time taken by footballers to
complete the obstacle course in the early morning, is greater than the mean time taken by
footballers to complete the obstacle course in the late afternoon.
State your hypotheses clearly.
(7)
(c) Explain the relevance of the Central Limit Theorem to the test in part (b).
(1)
(d) State an assumption you have made in carrying out the test in part (b).
(1)
IAL, Q6, May 2015
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24. A random sample of 60 children and a random sample of 50 adults were taken and each
person was given the same task to complete.

The table below summarises the times taken, t seconds, to complete the task.

Mean, t̅ Standard deviation, s n

Children 61.2 5.9 60
Adults 59.1 5.2 50

(a) Stating your hypotheses clearly, test, at the 5% level of significance, whether or not
there is evidence that the mean time taken to complete the task by children is greater
than the mean time taken by adults.
(6)
(b) Explain the relevance of the Central Limit Theorem to your calculation in part (a).
(1)
(c) State an assumption you have made to carry out the test in part (a).
(1)
IAL, Q4, May 2016

25. The manager of a gym claimed that the mean age of its customers is 30 years. A random
sample of 75 customers is taken and their ages have a mean of 28.2 years and a standard
deviation, s, of 8.5 years.
(a) Stating your hypotheses clearly and using a 10% level of significance, test whether or
not the manager’s claim is supported by the data.
(5)
(b) Explain the relevance of the Central Limit Theorem to your calculation in part (a).
(1)
(c) State an additional assumption needed to carry out the test in part (a).
(1)
IAL, Q3, May 2017
26. A dance studio has 800 dancers of which
452 are beginners
251 are intermediates
97 are professionals
(a) Explain in detail how a stratified sample of size 50 could be taken.
(3)
(b) State an advantage of stratified sampling rather than simple random sampling in this
situation.
(1)

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Independent random samples of 80 beginners and 60 intermediates are chosen. Each of
these dancers is given an assessment score, x, based on the quality of their dancing. The
results are summarised in the table below.

x s2 n
Beginners 31.7 57.3 80
Intermediates 36.9 38.1 60

The studio manager believes that the mean score of intermediates is more than 3 points
greater than the mean score of beginners.
(c) Stating your hypotheses clearly and using a 5% level of significance, test whether or
not these data support the studio manager’s belief.
(7)
IAL, Q5, May 2017

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