Problems on Hypothesis Testing

1. Write the null and alternative hypotheses for each of the following examples. Determine if each
is a case of a two-tailed, a left-tailed, or a right-tailed test.
a. To test if the mean number of hours spent working per week by college students who hold
jobs is different from 20 hours
b. To test whether or not a bank’s ATM is out of service for an average of more than 10 hours
per month
c. To test if the mean length of experience of airport security guards is different from 3 years
d. To test if the mean credit card debt of college seniors is less than $1000
e. To test if the mean time a customer has to wait on the phone to speak to a representative of
a mail order company about unsatisfactory service is more than 12 minutes
2. Write the null and alternative hypotheses for each of the following examples. Determine if each
is a case of a two-tailed, a left-tailed, or a right-tailed test.
a. To test if the mean amount of time spent per week watching sports on television by all adult
men is different from 9.5 hours
b. To test if the mean amount of money spent by all customers at a supermarket is less than
$105
c. To test whether the mean starting salary of college graduates is higher than $39,000 per year
d. To test if the mean waiting time at the drive-through window at a fast food restaurant during
rush hour differs from 10 minutes
e. To test if the mean hours spent per week on house chores by all housewives is less than 30
3. Consider 𝜇 = 29 versus 𝜇 ≠ 29. A random sample of 25 observations taken from this population
produced a sample mean of 25.3. The population is normally distributed with 𝜎 = 8. would you
reject the null hypothesis if the test were made at the significance level of .05?
4. Consider Consider 𝜇 = 29 versus 𝜇 > 29. A random sample of 16 observations taken from this
population produced a sample mean of 75.2. The population is normally distributed with 𝜎 = 8.
Would you reject the null hypothesis if the test were made at the significance level of .01?
5. A consumer advocacy group suspects that a local supermarket’s 10-ounce packages of cheddar
cheese actually weigh less than 10 ounces. The group took a random sample of 20 such
packages and found that the mean weight for the sample was 9.955 ounces. The population
follows a normal distribution with the population standard deviation of .15 ounce. Carry out a
hypothesis test at 1% significance level whether the mean weight of all such packages is less
than 10 ounces.
6. The manufacturer of a certain brand of auto batteries claims that the mean life of these
batteries is 45 months. A consumer protection agency that wants to check this claim took a
random sample of 24 such batteries and found that the mean life for this sample is 43.05
months. The lives of all such batteries have a normal distribution with the population standard
deviation of 4.5 months. Test at 2.5% significance level whether the mean life of these batteries
is less than 45 months.
7. A telephone company claims that the mean duration of all long-distance phone calls made by its
residential customers is 10 minutes. A random sample of 100 long-distance calls made by its
residential customers taken from the records of this company showed that the mean duration of
calls for this sample is 9.20 minutes. The population standard deviation is known to be 3.80
 minutes. Test at 2% siginificance level whether the mean duration of all long-distance calls made
by residential customers is different from 10 minutes.
8. At Farmer’s Dairy, a machine is set to fill 32-ounce milk cartons.. The standard deviation of the
milk in all such cartons is always equal to .15 ounce. The quality control inspector at this
company takes a sample of 25 such cartons every week, calculates the mean net weight of these
cartons, and tests the null hypothesis, 𝜇 = 29 against the alternate hypothesis 𝜇 ≠ 29. ounces,.
If the null hypothesis is rejected, the machine is stopped and adjusted. A recent sample of 25
such cartons produced a mean net weight of 31.93 ounces. Test at 1% significance level the
hypothesis and conclude whether the machine need to be adjusted?
9. Records in a three-county area show that in the last few years, Girl Scouts sell an average of
47.93 boxes of cookies per year, with a population standard deviation of 8.45 boxes per year.
Fifty randomly selected Girl Scouts from the region sold an average of 46.54 boxes this year.
Scout leaders are concerned that the demand for Girl Scout cookies may have decreased. Test at
the 10% significance level whether the average number of boxes of cookies sold by all Girl
Scouts in the three-county area is lower than the historical average.
10. 9.45 A study claims that all homeowners in a town spend an average of 8 hours on house
cleaning and gardening during a weekend. A researcher wanted to check if this claim is true. A
random sample of 20 homeowners taken by this researcher showed that they spend an average
of 7.68 hours on such chores during a weekend. The population of such times for all
homeowners in this town is normally distributed with the population standard deviation of 2.1
hours. Using the 1% significance level, can you conclude that the claim that all homeowners
spend an average of 8 hours on such chores during a weekend is false?