In: Statistics and Probability
In intaglio printing, a design or figure is carved beneath the surface of hard metal or stone. The business objective of an intaglio printing company is to determine whether there are differences in the mean surface hardness of steel plates, based on two different surface conditions – untreated and treated by lightly polishing with emery paper. An experiment is designed in which 40 steel plates are randomly assigned – 20 plates are untreated and 20 plates are treated, The results of the experiment are as follows:
Untreated Treated :
164.368, 177.135
159.018, 163.903
153.871, 167.802
165.096, 160.818
157.184, 167.433
154.496, 163.538
160.920, 164.525
164.917, 171.230
169.091, 174.964
175.276, 166.311
Treated
158.239, 150.223
138. 216, 155. 620
168.006, 151.233
149.654, 150.653
145.456, 151.204
168.178, 150.689
154.321, 161.657
162.763, 157.016
161.020, 156.670
167.706, 147.920
(a) Assuming that the population variances from both conditions are equal, is there evidence of a difference in the mean surface hardness between untreated and treated steel plates? (Use α = 0.05.) (Include: null and alternate hypotheses, value of test statistic, decision rule, conclusion in a complete sentence that includes why in terms of the decision rule.)
(b) Determine the p-value in (a) and interpret its meaning.
(c) In addition to equal variances, what other assumption is necessary in (a)?
(d) Construct and interpret a 95% confidence interval estimate of the difference between the population means from treated and untreated steel plates.