In: Statistics and Probability
Lunch break: In a recent survey of 655 working Americans ages
25|34, the average weekly
amount spent on lunch was $44.60 with standard deviation $2.81. The
weekly amounts are approx-
imately bell-shaped.
(a) Estimate the percentage of amounts that are between $36.17 and
$53.03.
(b) Estimate the percentage of amounts that are between $41.79 and
$47.41.
(c) Between what two values will approximately 95% of the amounts
be?
2. Pay your bills: In a large sample of customer accounts, a
utility company determined that
the average number of days between when a bill was sent out and
when the payment was made is
32 with a standard deviation of 7 days. Assume the data to be
approximately bell-shaped.
(a) Between what two values will approximately 68% of the numbers
of days be?
(b) Estimate the percentage of customer accounts for which the
number of days is between 18 and
46.
(c) Estimate the percentage of customer accounts for which the
number of days is between 11 and 53.
3. Precision manufacturing: A process manufactures ball bearings
with diameters that are
normally distributed with mean 25.1 millimeters and standard
deviation 0.08 millimeter.
(a) What proportion of the diameters are less than 25.0
millimeters?
(b) What proportion of the diameters are greater than 25.4
millimeters?
(c) To meet a certain specication, a ball bearing must have a
diameter between 25.0 and 25.3
millimeters. What proportion of the ball bearings meet the
specication?
4. Mortgage rates: Following are interest rates (annual percentage
rates) for a 30-year xed
rate mortgage from a sample of lenders in Macon, Georgia on June
20, 2013. It is reasonable to
assume that the population is approximately normal.
4.75 4.375 4.176 4.679 4.426 4.227 4.125 4.250 3.950 4.191 4.299
4.415
Source: www.bankrate.com
Construct a 99% condence interval for the mean rate and interpret
it.
One week earlier, the mean rate was 4.050%. A mortgage broker
claims that the mean rate is
now higher. Based on the condence interval, is this a reasonable
claim? Explain.
5. How smart is your phone? A random sample of 11 Samsung Galaxy
smartphones being sold
over the Internet in 2013 had the following prices, in
dollars:
199 169 385 329 269 149 135 249 349 299 249
Assume the population standard deviation = 85. Assuming that the
population is approx-
imately normal, construct a 95% condence interval for the mean
price for all phones of this type
being sold on the Internet in 2013.
6. Big salary for the boss: Following is the total 2012
compensation, in millions of dollars,
for Chief Executive Ocers at 20 large U.S. corporations.
2.75 9.15 2.32 23.84 13.12 9.91 6.29 2.19 4.28 0.70
3.18 8.20 1.68 4.64 6.05 6.59 11.31 1.35 25.84 2.85
Assuming that the conditions for constructing a condence
interval for the mean compensation
are satised, construct and interpret a 95% condence interval for
the mean compensation of a
Chief Executive Ocer.
In 2011, the average total compensation, in millions of dollars,
for Chief Executive Ocers at
these corporations was 11.41. An analyst claims that the mean
compensation has decreased in
2012. Does your condence interval support the analyst's claim?
Explain.
7. Working at home: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 43% of men
who worked at
home were college graduates. In a sample of 500 women who worked at
home, 162 were college
graduates.
Find a point estimate for the proportion of college graduates
among women who work
at home. Construct a 98% condence interval for the proportion of
women who work at home who
are college graduates.
Based on the condence interval, is it reasonable to believe that
the proportion of college graduates
among women who work at home is the same as the proportion of
college graduates among men
who work at home? Explain.
8. Internet service: An Internet service provider sampled 540
customers and found that 75
of them experienced an interruption in high-speed service during
the previous month.
Find a point
estimate for the population proportion of all customers who
experienced an interruption. Construct
a 90% condence interval for the proportion of all customers who
experienced an interruption.
The company's quality control manager claims that no more than 10%
of its customers expe-
rienced an interruption during the previous month. Does the
condence interval contradict this
claim? Explain.