1. An experiment is conducted to compare the heat retention of two brands of flasks, brand \(A\) and brand \(B\). Both brands of flask have a capacity of 750 ml .

In the experiment 750 ml of boiling water is poured into the flask, which is then sealed. Four hours later the temperature, in \({ } ^ { \circ } \mathrm { C }\), of the water in the flask is recorded. A random sample of 100 flasks from brand \(A\) gives the following summary statistics, where \(x\) is the temperature of the water in the flask after four hours. $$\sum x = 7690 \quad \sum ( x - \bar { x } ) ^ { 2 } = 669.24$$

1. Find unbiased estimates for the mean and variance of the temperature of the water, after four hours, for brand \(A\). A random sample of 80 flasks from brand \(B\) gives the following results, where \(y\) is the temperature of the water in the flask after four hours. $$\bar { y } = 75.9 \quad s _ { y } = 2.2$$
2. Test, at the \(1 \%\) significance level, whether there is a difference in the mean water temperature after four hours between brand \(A\) and brand \(B\). You should state your hypotheses, test statistic and critical value clearly.
3. Explain why it is reasonable to assume that \(\sigma ^ { 2 } = s ^ { 2 }\) in this situation.