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Solutions to selected problems from section 6.

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1. A random sample of 300 electronic components manufactured by a certain process are tested,
and 25 are found to be defective. Let p represent the proportion of components manufactured
by this process that are defective. The process engineer claims that p ≤ 0.05. Does the sample
provide enough evidence to reject the claim?

X = 25, n = 300, pb = 25/300 = 0.083333.


The engineer gives you the null hypothesis, you want to test against the null hypothesis and
therefore need to use the observed sample proportion pb as evidence to reject (or uphold) H0 .
So we are testing
H0 : p ≤ 0.05
versus H1 : p > 0.05

(0.083333 − 0.5)
The z-score for the test statistic is zT = p = 2.65. Since the alternative
0.05(1 − 0.05)/300
hypothesis is of the form p > p0 , so the P-value is the area to the right of zT = 2.65, the
P-value is therefore Pv = 0.0040.
We reject H0 with P-value = 0.0040. We have significant evidence that the proportion of
components manufactured by this process that are defective is greater than 0.05. So the
engineer’s claim that p ≤ 0.05 is false.
3. Do bathroom scales tend to underestimate a persons true weight? A 150 lb test weight was
placed on each of 50 bathroom scales. The readings on 29 of the scales were too light, and the
readings on the other 21 were too heavy. Can you conclude that more than half of bathroom
scales underestimate weight?

X = 29, n = 50, pb = 29/50 = 0.58.


It seems that some of you are confused by the language of the problem. In this case bathroom
scales that underestimate weight are defective. Scales that read weight exactly or overestimate
weight are acceptable. But don’t think about this problem in terms of weighing, think about
it in terms the proportion that are defective.
So we are testing
H0 : p ≤ 0.05
versus H1 : p > 0.05
p
The z-score for the test statistic is zT = (0.58 − 0.50)/ 0.50(1 − 0.50)/50 = 1.13.
Since the alternative hypothesis is of the form p > p0 , the P-value isthe area to the right of
z = 1.13, so Pv = 0.1292.
We fail to reject H0 with P-value = 0.1291. We do not have significant evidence that more
than half of bathroom scales underestimate weight. (Alternatively, We cannot conclude that
more than half of bathroom scales underestimate weight).

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6. The article Application of Surgical Navigation to Total Hip Arthroplasty (T. Ecker and S.
Murphy, Journal of Engineering in Medicine, 2007:699712) reports that in a sample of 113
people undergoing a certain type of hip replacement surgery on one hip, 65 of them had
surgery on their right hip. Can you conclude that frequency of this type of surgery differs
between right and left hips?

X = 65, n = 113, pb = 65/113 = 0.575221.


If p is the proportion of hip surgery that occurs on the right hip. If surgery occurs more often
on the right hip then p > 0.5, if it occurs less often then p < 0.5. So in either case if surgery
on the right hip occurs at a different frequency than the left hip then p 6= 0.5.
So we are testing

H0 : p = 0.5
versus H1 : p 6= 0.5
p
The z-score for the test statistic is z = (0.575221 − 0.5)/ 0.5(1 − 0.5)/113 = 1.6. Since the
alternate hypothesis is of the form p = p0 , the P-value is the sum of the areas to the right of
z = 1.60 and to the left of z = 1.60, so Pv = 0.1096.
We fail to reject H0 with P-value = 0.1096. We lack significant evidence to conclude that the
frequency of hip surgery differs between the right and left hips. (Alternatively, We cannot
conclude that the frequency of this type of surgery differs between right and left hips).

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