9.

1 Review

Null hypothesis: _______

The Ho takes on the form Ho: parameter = value

Alternative hypothesis: _______

The Ha takes on the form Ha: parameter > value or parameter < value or
parameter ≠ value

Hypotheses ALWAYS refer to the population NOT the sample. Always use p’s and
μ’s not p̂ ’s or x ’s.

Example:

Will claims he makes 85% of his free throw shots. Kennan believes he makes less than 85%
and wants to test Will’s claim.
State the null hypothesis. Ho:_________


State the alternative hypothesis. Ha:________


State the parameter of interest and the appropriate null and alternative hypotheses:

(a) The average height of 18-year-old American women is 64.2 inches. You wonder
whether the mean height of this year’s female graduates from a large local high
school (over 3000 students) differs from the national average. You measure an SRS
of 48 female graduates and find that x = 63.1 inches. 


Parameter:

H0 =

HA =
 (b) Mr. Starnes believes that less than 75% of the students at his school completed
their math homework last night. The math teachers inspect the homework
assignments from a random sample of students at the school to help Mr. Starnes test
his claim. 


Parameter:

H0 =

HA =

2. Explain what’s wrong with the following statement, then state the correct hypotheses.
A change is made that should improve student satisfaction with the parking situation at a
local high school. Right now, 37% of students approve of the parking that’s provided. The
null hypothesis H0 : p > 0.37 is tested against the alternative Ha : p = 0.37.

Practice Set 1:

1. . For each of the following settings, write the parameter and the appropriate null
and alternative hypotheses for the test described.

a) The mean weight of loaves of bread produced at the bakery where you work is
supposed to be one pound. You are the supervisor of quality control at the bakery,
and you are concerned that the new personnel are producing loaves that have a mean
weight of more than one pound.

Parameter:

H0 =

HA =
 b) According to the Humane Society, 33% of households in the US own at least one
cat. You are interested in determining whether the proportion of household of the
students at your school that own at least one cat is different from the national
proportion.

Parameter:

H0 =

HA =

3. The average yield of a certain crop is 10.1 bushels per plant. A biologist claims that a
new fertilizer will result in a greater yield when applied to the crop. A random sample of 25
of plants given the fertilizer has an average yield of 10.8 bushels and a standard deviation of
2.1 bushels. The appropriate null and alternative hypotheses to test the biologist’s claim are

(a) H0: µ = 10.8 against Ha: µ > 10.8

(b) H0: µ = 10.8 against Ha: µ ≠ 10.8
(c) H0: µ = 10.1 against Ha: µ > 10.1
(d) H0: µ = 10.1 against Ha: µ < 10.1
(e) H0: µ = 10.1 against Ha: µ ≠ 10.1

4. An opinion poll asks a random sample of adults whether they favor banning ownership of
handguns by private citizens. A commentator believes that more than half of all adults favor
such a ban. The null and alternative hypotheses you would use to test this claim are
(a) H0: p = 0.5; Ha: p = 0.5 

(b) H0: p = 0.5; Ha: p > 0.5 

(c) H0: p = 0.5; Ha: p < 0.5 

(d) H0: p = 0.5; Ha: p = 0.5 

(e) H0:p > 0.5; Ha: p = 0.5 


P-Values:

 A p-value tells if we have evidence against the null hypothesis.

Interpreting the p-value:

Assuming that the null hypothesis is true, there is a __________ % chance of getting a
sample mean/proportion of ________ purely by chance.
Consider the bakery problem in 1a. Suppose you weigh an SRS of 100 bread loaves and find
that the mean weight is 1.025 pounds, which yields a P-value of 0.086.
Interpret the P-value in the context of the problem.

 Small p-values are evidence against the Ho because the result we got is unlikely to
occur if the Ho is true.

 Large p-values fail to give convincing evidence against the Ho because the result we
got is likely to occur by chance alone.

The significance level (α) is a fixed value that determines if the p-value is small or large.

The default significance level is α = .05.

Example:

For the bakery problem, what decision would you make at the α = .05 level?

What decision would you make at the α = .10 level?

Practice Set 2:

1. A researcher wants to study the birth weights of babies whose mothers drank alcohol
during pregnancy. She sets up the following hypotheses:
Ho: µ = 1200 grams
HA : µ < 1200 grams.

Data analysis reveals that x = 1180 grams. A significance test is performed and a p-value of
0.000061 is obtained.

a. Interpret the p-value in context.

b. What decision would you make at the 0.05 level?

2. Lumber companies dry freshly-cut wood in kilns before selling it. As a result of the drying
process a certain percentage of the boards become “checked,” which means that cracks
develop at the ends of the boards. The current drying procedure for 1” x 4” red oak boards
is known to produce cracks in 16% of the boards. The drying supervisor at a lumber
company wants to test a new method to determine if fewer boards crack.

a. State the Null and Alternative hypotheses:

H0 =

HA =

b. Suppose that the drying supervisor uses the new method on an SRS of boards and finds
that the sample proportion of checked boards is 0.11, which produces a P-value of 0.027.

Interpret the P-value in the context of the problem.

c. What conclusion would you draw at the 0.05 level? At the = 0.01 level?