CAIE S2 2010 November — Question 7

Exam BoardCAIE
ModuleS2 (Statistics 2)
Year2010
SessionNovember
TopicHypothesis test of a Poisson distribution

7 In the past, the number of house sales completed per week by a building company has been modelled by a random variable which has the distribution \(\mathrm { Po } ( 0.8 )\). Following a publicity campaign, the builders hope that the mean number of sales per week will increase. In order to test at the \(5 \%\) significance level whether this is the case, the total number of sales during the first 3 weeks after the campaign is noted. It is assumed that a Poisson model is still appropriate.
  1. Given that the total number of sales during the 3 weeks is 5 , carry out the test.
  2. During the following 3 weeks the same test is carried out again, using the same significance level. Find the probability of a Type I error.
  3. Explain what is meant by a Type I error in this context.
  4. State what further information would be required in order to find the probability of a Type II error.