Edexcel S4 2013 June — Question 4

Exam BoardEdexcel
ModuleS4 (Statistics 4)
Year2013
SessionJune
TopicChi-squared distribution

4. A company carries out an investigation into the strengths of rods from two different suppliers, Ardo and Bards. Independent random samples of rods were taken from each supplier and the force, \(x \mathrm { kN }\), needed to break each rod was recorded. The company wrote the results on a piece of paper but unfortunately spilt ink on it so some of the results can not be seen.
The paper with the results on is shown below.
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    1. Use the data from Ardo to calculate an unbiased estimate, \(s _ { A } ^ { 2 }\), of the variance.
    2. Hence find an unbiased estimate, \(s _ { B } ^ { 2 }\), of the variance for the sample of 9 values from Bards.
  1. Stating your hypotheses clearly, test at the \(10 \%\) level of significance whether or not there is a difference in variability of strength between the rods from Ardo and the rods from Bards.
    (You may assume the two samples come from independent normal distributions.)
  2. Use a \(5 \%\) level of significance to test whether the mean strength of rods from Bards is more than 0.9 kN greater than the mean strength of rods from Ardo.
    (6)