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Estimation and Confidence Intervals

Question 1

[Maximum mark: 5]



A coffee machine has a label stating that it outputs 250 ml of coffee. The machines are made in such a way that the output amount follows a normal distribution, with a mean of 248 ml and a standard deviation of 3 ml.



a) What is the probability that an individual cup has more than 250 ml?


b) What is the probability that 10 randomly selected cups have an average volume of less than 247 ml?

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Question 2

[Maximum mark: 5]



A random variable \(Y\) has a population standard deviation of \(\sigma = 3\). John wants to test the claim that the mean is 40, which he does by selecting a random sample of 50, finding the sample mean to be 42.1.



a) What is the 95% confidence interval for \(\mu\)?


b) Use this result to assess the validity of the claim.

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Question 3

[Maximum mark: 8]



The mass of newly produced cars was measured to assess the quality of production. 30 cars were randomly chosen, and it was determined that the mean mass was 1532 kg, with a standard deviation of 10 kg.



a) Find the unbiased estimate for the standard deviation.


b) What is the 95% confidence interval for the mean, to 2 decimal places? Each car is labelled with a sticker that says the mass is 1530 kg.


c) What can we deduce now that we know the answer to (b)?

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Question 4

[Maximum mark: 10]



A newly released phone is bought in a batch to assess its charging capability. We buy 10 phones and measure the time in minutes to charge from 0% to 100%. The times recorded are:

\[ 20, \ 19.5, \ 22, \ 19, \ 20.4, \ 21.3, \ 20, \ 20.3, \ 20.4, \ 19.3 \]

\[ 61.5, \ 60, \ 59, \ 57.5, \ 62, \ 65.1, \ 63, \ 60.4, \ 61, \ 60 \]



a) Assuming these times follow a normal distribution, find unbiased estimates for \(\mu\) and \(\sigma^2\). Round your answers to two decimal places.


b) Calculate the 95% confidence interval for the mean. Round your answers to two decimal places.


c) Our prediction is that the mean time will be 60 minutes, which is our null hypothesis.

i. Find the t-statistic for this hypothesis and the p-value corresponding to this using a two tailed test.

ii. State the conclusion at 5% significance level.

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Question 5Register

[Maximum mark: 10]



A large company manufactures chip bags, and claims that there are 100 chips in each bag on average. Ted chooses 20 bags at random and counts the number of chips in each bag, labeled as \(x\).

\[ \sum x = 1954, \ \sum x^2 = 191100 \]


a) Find the unbiased estimate for the mean number of chips in a bag. To find the unbiased estimate for the standard deviation, use the following formula:

\[ s_{n-1} = \sqrt{\frac{\sum x^2 - \frac{(\sum x)^2}{n}}{n-1}} \]


b) Determine the unbiased estimate for the standard deviation.


c) Find the 99% confidence interval for the mean, assuming it’s normally distributed.


d) Based on this result, what conclusion can we make?

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Question 6Register

[Maximum mark: 6]



A random sample of 50 high school students was taken, and their masses were recorded. This sample of the whole population had a mean mass of 82 kg. The entire population of high school students has a standard deviation of 5 kg.


a) Calculate the population mean mass with an 80% confidence interval, rounded to 1 decimal place.


b) Find the required sample size for which the interval in part a reduces to half the width.

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Question 7Premium

[Maximum mark: 12]



A randomly selected sample of 20 is taken of a random variable \( X \) with a normal distribution and mean \( \mu \). It has been calculated that:

\[ \sum_{i=1}^{20} (x_i - \overline{x})^2 = 350 \]


a) Find the sample variance.


b) An \( a\%\) confidence interval is taken for the mean, which is found to be [322.87, 331.45].


i. Find the 95% confidence interval for this sample, to 3 decimal places.

ii. Find \( a \), round your answer to 2 decimal places.

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Question 8Premium

[Maximum mark: 14]



A lot of people underwent a test for long jump, where they were first asked to jump at the best of their ability, and then they went on a month-long training camp where Olympians taught them techniques to improve their long jump. The results of 10 participants are shown below:

Person A B C D E F G H I J
Jump before (cm) 230 213 256 200 187 256 211 196 210 200
Jump after (cm) 245 200 260 205 212 240 222 213 205 195

a) Calculate the unbiased estimates of the mean and variance of the increase in long jump for all participants.


b) We aim to determine whether training with an Olympian for a month is enough to improve an average person’s long jump.

i. What are the null and alternate hypotheses?

ii. Find the t-value for the data.

iii. Find the critical value at a significance level of 5%. What does it suggest?


A random person tries to estimate the mean increase of jump distance and obtains a confidence interval of (-7.5, 15.1).


c) Find the confidence level the person used.

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