Instructor: Micheline H.

Dib
Advanced Statistics problems
1) In a study of estimating the average response time of a web server, 16
independent experiments are conducted and from each average of
successive response times are calculated. The average of the results of 16
experiments was found to be 0.68 second and standard deviation was
found to be 0.05 second.
a. Estimate the true mean response time of this web server with a
95% confidence interval.
b. Estimate the true standard deviation of response times of this
server with a 90% confidence interval.
2) A tile company advertises that it will deliver your tile within 15 days
(mean of 15) of your purchase. A sample of 49 past customers is taken.
The average delivery time in the sample was 16.2 with a standard
deviation of 5.6 days.
Test the hypothesis at the 5% level of significance.
3) Crystalline forms of certain chemical compounds are used in various
electronic devices. It is often more desirable to have large crystals rather
than small ones. In a laboratory study, 14 crystals of the same initial size
were allowed to grow for certain periods of time. The following data gives
the weight y of the crystal (in grams) and the period x of time (in hours)
which was used for each crystal.
Time Weight
Time Weight
2
0.08
16
8.4
4
1.12
18
8.81
6
4.43
20
10.81
8
4.98
22
11.16
10
4.92
24
10.12
12
7.18
26
13.12
14
5.57
28
15.04
a. Construct a scatterplot of the y data versus the x data.
b. Find the sample mean(s) of the weight(y) and the period (x) of
time.
c. Compute the least-squares estimates of 0 and 1.
d. Find and draw the Least-Square regression line and use it to
estimate the mean weight in grams for a period of x = 5 hours.
e. Does the line pass through the data points?
f. Determine the coefficient of determination for crystalline forms.

4) Suppose the Cartoon Network conducts a nation-wide survey to assess

viewer attitudes toward Superman. Using a simple random sample, they
select 400 boys and 300 girls to participate in the study. Forty percent of
the boys say that Superman is their favorite character, compared to thirty
percent of the girls.
What is the 90% confidence interval for the true difference in
attitudes toward Superman?
5) A research worker wants to determine the average time it takes a
mechanic to rotate the tires of a car, and she wants to be able to assert
with 95% confidence that the mean of her sample is off by at most 0.5
minute. If she can presume from past experience that = 1.6 minutes.
How large a sample will she have to take?
6) The Department of Civil Engineering at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University compared a modified (M-5 hr) assay technique for
recovering fecal coliforms in storm water runoff from an urban area to a
most probable number (MPN) technique. A total of 12 runoff samples were
collected and analyzed by the two techniques. Fecal coliform counts per
100 milliliters are recorded in the following table:
Sample
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

12
12

MPN count
2300
1200
450
210
270
450
154
179
192
230
340
194

M-5 hr count
2010
930
400
436
4100
2090
219
169
194
174
274
183

Construct a 90% confidence interval for the difference in the mean fecal
coliform counts between the M-5 hr and the MPN techniques. Assume that
the count differences are approximately normally distributed.
7) Is there a relationship between moderate wine consumption and heart
disease rate? The table underneath provides data from 6 developed
countries from various cultures.

Country
Liters of wine
per year per capita (x)
Deaths from heart disease
per 100,000 people per
year (y)

A
25

B
24

C
8

D
79

E
18

21
1

19
1

29
7

10
7

16
7

F
6
5
8
6

a. Draw the Scatter plot for the data.

b. Calculate the coefficient of correlation. Interpret your result
whether there is a strong, weak or no correlation between both
variables x and y.
c. Find the least-Square estimate coefficients (The slope and the yintercept)
d. Interpret the meaning of the slope.
e. Compute the number of death for a consumption of 87 liters of
wine per year.
f. Calculate the equation of the least squares regression line, graph
it in the scatter diagram.
g. Use the regression line to make predictions.
8) A soft-drink dispensing machine is said to be out of control if the variance
of the contents exceeds 1.15 deciliters. If a random sample of 25 drinks
from this machine has a variance of 2.03 deciliters, does this indicate at
the 0.05 level of significance that the machine is out of control? Assume
that the contents are approximately normally distributed.
9) A Mathematics test is given to all entering freshmen at a small college. A
student who receives a grade below 35 is denied admission to the regular
mathematics course and placed in a remedial class. The placement test
scores and the final grades for 5 students who took the regular course
were recorded as follows:

Placement test
50
90

Course grade
53
79

60

71

40

47

90

54

a. Find the equation of the regression line to predict course grades from
placement test .
b. Graph the line.
c. If 60 is the minimum passing grade, below which placement test score
should students in the future be denied admission to this course.
10) A Bowler (professional player in Bowling) claims that she has a 215
average. In her latest performance, she scores 188, 214, and 204.
a. Calculate the sample mean, variance, and standard deviation
b. What is the probability the sample mean would be lower than 202
(Assume that her bowling scores are normally distributed.)
11) What would be the probability that the sample variance is greater
than 3.299
A random sample of 20 students obtained a mean of x = 72 and a variance
of s2 = 16 on a college placement test in Mathematics. Assuming the scores
to be normally distributed,
construct a 98% confidence interval for 2
12) A programs average working-set size was known to be 50 pages with
a variance of 900. A reorganization of the programs address space was
suspected to have improved its locality and hence decreased its average
working-set size. In order to judge locality-improvement procedure, 100
samples of the improved version of the program working-set size were
taken and sample average was found to be 45 pages.
a. Is there enough evidence to believe that the reorganization indeed
improved program locality? ( Hint : take H0 : 0 = 50).
13) Reclaimed phospate land in Polk County, Florida, has been found to
emit a higher mean radiation level than other non mining land in the
county. Suppose that the radiation level for the reclaimed land has a
distribution with mean 5.0 working levels (WL) and a standard deviation of
0.5 WL. Suppose further that 20 houses built on reclaimed land are
randomly selected and the radiation level is measured in each.
a. What is the probability that the sample mean for the 20 houses
exceeds 4.7 WL?
b. What is the probability that the sample mean is less than 4.8 WL?
c.
14) A manufacturer of car batteries claims that his batteries will last, on
average, 3 years with a variance of 1 year. If 5 of these batteries have

lifetimes of 1.9, 2.4, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.2 years. Construct a 95% confidence
interval for 2 and decide if the manufacturers claim that 2 = 1 is valid.
Assume the population of battery lives to be approximately normally
distributed.
15) An electrical firm manufactures light bulbs that have a length of life
that is approximately normally distributed with a standard deviation of 40
hours.
a. If a sample of 30 bulbs, has an average life of 780 hours. Find a 96 %
confidence interval for the population mean of all bulbs produced by
this firm.
b. How large a sample is needed if we wish to be 96% confident that our
sample mean will be within 10 hours of the true mean.