Math 3339

Homework 5 (6.4-6.6; Chapter 7)

Name:__________________________________ PeopleSoft ID:_______________

Instructions:
• Homework will NOT be accepted through email or in person. Homework must be submitted through
CANVAS BEFORE the deadline.
• Total possible points: 100
• You can use RStudio for any of these problems unless otherwise indicated.

1. The inside diameter of a randomly selected piston ring is a random variable following normal
distribution with mean value 12 cm and standard deviation 0.04 cm.
(a) If 𝑋̅ is the sample mean diameter for a random sample of n = 16 rings, where is the sampling
distribution of 𝑋̅ centered, and what is the standard deviation of the 𝑋̅ distribution?
(b) Answer the questions posted in part (a) for a sample size of n =64 rings.
(c) For which of the two random samples, the one of part (a) or the one of part (b), is 𝑋̅ more likely to
be within 0.01 cm of 12 cm? Explain your reasoning.

a
Mathematical Statistics, Wackerly, D. et al (2011)
 a
2. The fracture strength of tempered glass averages 14 (measured in thousands of pounds per square
inch) and has standard deviation 2.
(a) What is the probability that the average fracture strength of 100 randomly selected pieces of this
glass exceeds 14.5?
(b) Find an interval that includes, with probability 0.95, the average fracture strength of 100 randomly
selected pieces of this glass.

3. The breaking strengths of a random sample of 20 bundles of wool fibers have a sample mean 436.5
and a sample standard deviation 11.9.
(a) Construct 90%, 95%, and 99% confidence intervals for the average breaking strength of the wool
fibers.
(b) Compare the widths of the three confidence intervals. At which level of confidence do you have
the widest interval?
(c) Do you think it is plausible that the average breaking strength is equal to 450?

a
Mathematical Statistics, Wackerly, D. et al (2011)
 4. An experimenter would like to construct a 99% confidence interval with a width at most 0.5 for the
average resistance of a segment of copper cable of a certain length. If the experimenter knows that the
standard deviation of such resistances is 1.55. How big a sample should the experimenter take from
the population? What happens if the standard deviation and the width of the confidence interval are
both doubled?

5. Consider the following data set which is the time (in minutes) for students to finish a math test.
34 45 27 33 38 41 45 29 30 39 34 40 28 33 36 50
(a) What is the sample mean?
(b) What is the sample standard deviation?
(c) Construct a 99% confidence interval for the population mean.

a
Mathematical Statistics, Wackerly, D. et al (2011)
 6. A sample of size 50 from a normal distribution has sample mean 5 and sample variance 20. Find 96%
confidence intervals for the variance and standard deviation of the distribution.

a
7. Industrial light bulbs should have a mean life length acceptable to potential users and a relatively
small variation in life length. If some bulbs fail too early in their life, users become annoyed and are
likely to switch to bulbs produced by a different manufacturer. Large variations above the mean
reduce replacement sales; in general, variation in life lengths disrupts the user’s replacement
schedules. A random sample of 20 bulbs produced by a particular manufacturer produced the
following lengths of life (in hours):

2100, 2302, 1951, 2067, 2415, 1883, 2101, 2146, 2278, 2019,
1924, 2183, 2077, 2392, 2286, 2501, 1946, 2161, 2253, 1827.

(a) Find a 99% confidence interval for the standard deviation of the lengths of life for the bulbs
produced by this manufacturer.
(b) Is the true population standard deviation possibly less than 150 hours? Why or why not?

a
Mathematical Statistics, Wackerly, D. et al (2011)
 8. Suppose that 47% of Americans are iPhone users.
(a) If a random sample of 100 Americans are surveyed, what is the probability that the proportion of
the sample who are iPhone users is between 45% and 50%?
(b) If a random sample of 50 Americans are surveyed, what is the probability that more than 50% of
Americans are iPhone users?

9. a
Is America’s romance with movies on the wane? In a Gallup Poll of n=800 randomly chosen adults,
45% indicated that movies were getting better whereas 43% indicated that movies were getting worse.
(a) Find a 98% confidence interval for p, the overall proportion of adults who say that movies are
getting better.
(b) Does the interval include the value p=0.50? Do you think that a majority of adults say that movies
are getting better?

a
Mathematical Statistics, Wackerly, D. et al (2011)