St.

Paul University Philippines

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500

Problems on Test of Means

Compiled by Enrique M. Garcia, Jr.

1. The manufacturer of electric bulbs has established that the average life of the bulbs that his
firm produces is 1450 hours with a Standard Deviation of 150 hours. The production of bulbs
are closely monitored so that the bulbs’ lifetime are maintained close to the average. The
manufacturer would not want the bulbs’ lifetime s to fall too much below the average as this
affects the quality. Neither does he want the lifetime to be much higher as this will reduce
sales. Occasionally, he takes a random sample of bulbs to see if the average lifetime of bulbs
may have significantly changed (that is, higher or lower than the average). On one particular
occasion, he took a sample of 100 bulbs and found the average to be 1390 hours. At 5% level
of Significance, does the manufacturer have reason to believe that the average lifetime of
bulbs manufactured by his company has changed?

2. A College within a University used to give entrance examinations to incoming freshmen.

Students whose scores were equal to or better than the cut-off score were accepted. The rest
were turned down. The average score of first year students in the entrance examination
when it was still being administered was established to be 80%. Due to a dwindling
population, however, the entrance examinations were suspended for the past three years.
Because of the suspension, one would think that the quality of first year students who are
being accepted has diminished. However, the Dean has observed that the college continues
to attract quite a number of students with good grades from good high schools, due in part
to the college’s continued commitment to quality instruction and facilities. The Dean is
curious as to whether the quality of freshmen students has changed compared to the years
when entrance examinations were being administered. To test his hypothesis, he takes a small
random sample of 15 freshmen students and administers the same entrance examination to
them. He finds that their average score is 83% with a standard deviation of 5%. Using 1% Level
of Significance, has the quality of freshmen students changed, based on the result of the test
scores of the examination that was just administered?

3. The manufacturing sector of flashlight batteries produces batteries with an average life of 35
hours. One manufacturer claims that the average life of his batteries exceeds the established
standard of 35 hours. A mining firm would like to buy a fairly large quantity of batteries from
the manufacturer if his claim is tested to be true. A random sample of 100 flashlight batteries is
tested. It is found that the average life of the sample batteries is 38 hours with a standard
deviation of 5 hours. At 1% Level of Significance, do you think that the mining firm will decide
to buy from said manufacturer?

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 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500

Problems on Test of Difference of Means

Compiled by Enrique M. Garcia, Jr.

1. An agricultural research institute is studying on two new varieties of palay both of which are
reputedly high-yielding varieties. There are some studies which suggest that the difference in
the yield per hectare may be significant. The head of the institute decides to find out if there
is, in fact, a significant difference in yield. Forty hectares are planted to variety A and thirty
hectares are planted to variety B. Both varieties are grown under identical laboratory
conditions. At harvest time, the results are:
Variety A Variety B
Average Yield per hectare 250 cavans 240 cavans
Standard Deviation 20 cavans 15 cavans
At 1% Level of Significance, is there a significant difference in the yield of the two palay
varieties?

2. A professor in Statistics teaches the subject in a conventional way in one of his classes.
However, he has began to teach Statistics with the use of computers using Statistics software
in a second class. At the end of the course, he gives the same examination to both classes.
He has observed that students who are taught with computers tend to get higher scores
during examinations although this is not true everytime. It even happens that there are
students taught the conventional way who get higher scores than some students who are
taught with the use of computers. The professor decides to test the hypothesis, at 1% Level of
Significance, that students who are taught Statistics with computers learn better, that is, they
score higer during examinations. He takes a random sample of 15 corrected final
examination papers in the first class and 10 randomly picked and corrected final examination
papers in the second class. He gets the average and standard deviation for each sample.
The results are:
Conventional Method Use of Computers
Sample Mean 84 92
Standard Deviation 8 5
Sample Size 15 10

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 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500

Problems on Analysis of Variance

Compiled by Enrique M. Garcia, Jr.

1. The manager of a training outfit for sales representatives would like to know if there might be a
significant difference among three methods of instruction (Methods A, B, and C) that are
employed for trainees. A different method is used for each of three separate groups of trainees.
The same topic is discussed for all groups and the same set of examination questions are given at
the end of the training seminar. A sample of the examination scores of six trainees from each of
the groups is taken. Based on a Level of Significance of 1%, test to determine if there is a
significant difference in the scores of the three groups (that is, if there is a significant difference in
the methods of instruction employed).
Method A Method B Method C
82 80 92
93 86 96
90 78 85
88 82 90
85 76 89
92 84 94

2. A subject in Economics is taught in the graduate school to three different small classes of
students by three instructors. At the end of the term, the students are given the same
departmental examination questions. The final grades of the students are shown below. At 5%
Level of Significance, is there a significant difference in the scores of the three groups? (Note:
The test will determine if the methods of instruction are equally effective or not).
Section 1 Section 2 Section 3
80 79 90
81 88 78
86 86 82
88 90 88
80 82 92

3. Three training methods are employed and then compared to determine if there are differences
in the productivity levels of three groups that are trained. A sample of five trainees each is taken
from three groups. The productivity levels are as follows:
Method 1 Method 2 Method 3
85 70 85
60 82 82
75 62 78
80 65 80
65 68 79
At 1% Level of Significance, do the training methods yield significantly different productivity levels
(and therefore, significantly different training methods)?

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 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500

4. Four groups of three patients each are treated for the same ailment with different medications.
The data below show the number of days it took the patient to get well from the start of
treatment. At 1% Level of Significance, is there a significant difference in the treatment of the
patients? (And therefore a significant difference in the medications?)

Treatment Treatment Treatment Treatment

A B C D
8 2 3 6
3 6 5 3
5 7 7 2

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