In: Math
Volunteers who had developed a cold within the previous 24 hours were randomized to take either zinc or placebo lozenges every 2 to 3 hours until their cold symptoms were gone. Twenty-five participants took zinc lozenges, and 23 participants took placebo lozenges. The mean overall duration of symptoms for the zinc lozenge group was 4.5 days, and the standard deviation of overall duration of symptoms was 1.1 days. For the placebo group, the mean overall duration of symptoms was 8.6 days, and the standard deviation was 1.8 days.
(a) Calculate a 95% confidence interval for the mean overall duration of symptoms if everyone in the population were to take the zinc lozenges. (Round your answers to two decimal places.) to days
(b) Calculate a 95% confidence interval for the mean overall duration of symptoms if everyone in the population were to take the placebo lozenges. (Round your answers to two decimal places.) to days
(c) On the basis of the intervals computed in parts (a) and (b), is it reasonable to conclude generally that taking zinc lozenges reduces the overall duration of cold symptoms more than if taking a placebo? Explain why you think this is or is not an appropriate conclusion. Correct: Your answer is correct. reasonable to conclude that taking zinc lozenges reduces the duration of symptoms. The confidence intervals computed in parts (a) and (b) Correct: Your answer is correct. , so a reasonable conclusion is that in a population of cold sufferers the mean duration of symptoms if zinc lozenges are taken is Correct: Your answer is correct. than the mean duration if placebo is taken.
(d) In their paper, the researchers say that they checked whether it was reasonable to assume that the data were sampled from a normal curve population and decided that it was. How is this relevant to the calculations done in parts (a) and (b)? For relatively Correct: Your answer is correct. samples such as these, a necessary condition (in theory) is that the population of measurements has a normal distribution.