2.05c Significance levels: one-tail and two-tail

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Edexcel S2 2007 January Q6
13 marks Standard +0.3
6. Past records from a large supermarket show that \(20 \%\) of people who buy chocolate bars buy the family size bar. On one particular day a random sample of 30 people was taken from those that had bought chocolate bars and 2 of them were found to have bought a family size bar.
  1. Test at the \(5 \%\) significance level, whether or not the proportion \(p\), of people who bought a family size bar of chocolate that day had decreased. State your hypotheses clearly. The manager of the supermarket thinks that the probability of a person buying a gigantic chocolate bar is only 0.02 . To test whether this hypothesis is true the manager decides to take a random sample of 200 people who bought chocolate bars.
  2. Find the critical region that would enable the manager to test whether or not there is evidence that the probability is different from 0.02 . The probability of each tail should be as close to \(2.5 \%\) as possible.
  3. Write down the significance level of this test.
Edexcel S2 2008 January Q5
7 marks Moderate -0.3
  1. Dhriti grows tomatoes. Over a period of time, she has found that there is a probability 0.3 of a ripe tomato having a diameter greater than 4 cm . She decides to try a new fertiliser. In a random sample of 40 ripe tomatoes, 18 have a diameter greater than 4 cm . Dhriti claims that the new fertiliser has increased the probability of a ripe tomato being greater than 4 cm in diameter.
Test Dhriti's claim at the 5\% level of significance. State your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 2008 January Q7
14 marks Standard +0.3
  1. Explain what you understand by
    1. a hypothesis test,
    2. a critical region. During term time, incoming calls to a school are thought to occur at a rate of 0.45 per minute. To test this, the number of calls during a random 20 minute interval, is recorded.
  2. Find the critical region for a two-tailed test of the hypothesis that the number of incoming calls occurs at a rate of 0.45 per 1 minute interval. The probability in each tail should be as close to \(2.5 \%\) as possible.
  3. Write down the actual significance level of the above test. In the school holidays, 1 call occurs in a 10 minute interval.
  4. Test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence that the rate of incoming calls is less during the school holidays than in term time.
Edexcel S2 2010 January Q6
10 marks Standard +0.3
6.
  1. Define the critical region of a test statistic. A discrete random variable \(X\) has a Binomial distribution \(\mathrm { B } ( 30 , p )\). A single observation is used to test \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 } : p = 0.3\) against \(\mathrm { H } _ { 1 } : p \neq 0.3\)
  2. Using a \(1 \%\) level of significance find the critical region of this test. You should state the probability of rejection in each tail which should be as close as possible to 0.005
  3. Write down the actual significance level of the test. The value of the observation was found to be 15 .
  4. Comment on this finding in light of your critical region.
Edexcel S2 2012 January Q2
7 marks Moderate -0.3
2. David claims that the weather forecasts produced by local radio are no better than those achieved by tossing a fair coin and predicting rain if a head is obtained or no rain if a tail is obtained. He records the weather for 30 randomly selected days. The local radio forecast is correct on 21 of these days. Test David's claim at the \(5 \%\) level of significance. State your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 2012 January Q7
10 marks Standard +0.3
7. (a) Explain briefly what you understand by
  1. a critical region of a test statistic,
  2. the level of significance of a hypothesis test.
    (b) An estate agent has been selling houses at a rate of 8 per month. She believes that the rate of sales will decrease in the next month.
  3. Using a \(5 \%\) level of significance, find the critical region for a one tailed test of the hypothesis that the rate of sales will decrease from 8 per month.
  4. Write down the actual significance level of the test in part (b)(i). The estate agent is surprised to find that she actually sold 13 houses in the next month. She now claims that this is evidence of an increase in the rate of sales per month.
    (c) Test the estate agent's claim at the \(5 \%\) level of significance. State your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 2013 January Q6
10 marks Standard +0.3
6.
  1. Explain what you understand by a hypothesis.
  2. Explain what you understand by a critical region. Mrs George claims that 45\% of voters would vote for her.
    In an opinion poll of 20 randomly selected voters it was found that 5 would vote for her.
  3. Test at the \(5 \%\) level of significance whether or not the opinion poll provides evidence to support Mrs George's claim. In a second opinion poll of \(n\) randomly selected people it was found that no one would vote for Mrs George.
  4. Using a \(1 \%\) level of significance, find the smallest value of \(n\) for which the hypothesis \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 } : p = 0.45\) will be rejected in favour of \(\mathrm { H } _ { 1 } : p < 0.45\)
Edexcel S2 2001 June Q3
7 marks Moderate -0.3
3. In a sack containing a large number of beads \(\frac { 1 } { 4 }\) are coloured gold and the remainder are of different colours. A group of children use some of the beads in a craft lesson and do not replace them. Afterwards the teacher wishes to know whether or not the proportion of gold beads left in the sack has changed. He selects a random sample of 20 beads and finds that 2 of them are coloured gold. Stating your hypotheses clearly test, at the \(10 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence that the proportion of gold beads has changed.
Edexcel S2 2001 June Q5
12 marks Standard +0.3
5. The maintenance department of a college receives requests for replacement light bulbs at a rate of 2 per week. Find the probability that in a randomly chosen week the number of requests for replacement light bulbs is
  1. exactly 4,
  2. more than 5 . Three weeks before the end of term the maintenance department discovers that there are only 5 light bulbs left.
  3. Find the probability that the department can meet all requests for replacement light bulbs before the end of term. The following term the principal of the college announces a package of new measures to reduce the amount of damage to college property. In the first 4 weeks following this announcement, 3 requests for replacement light bulbs are received.
  4. Stating your hypotheses clearly test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence that the rate of requests for replacement light bulbs has decreased.
Edexcel S2 2005 June Q7
14 marks Standard +0.3
7. A drugs company claims that \(75 \%\) of patients suffering from depression recover when treated with a new drug. A random sample of 10 patients with depression is taken from a doctor's records.
  1. Write down a suitable distribution to model the number of patients in this sample who recover when treated with the new drug. Given that the claim is correct,
  2. find the probability that the treatment will be successful for exactly 6 patients. The doctor believes that the claim is incorrect and the percentage who will recover is lower. From her records she took a random sample of 20 patients who had been treated with the new drug. She found that 13 had recovered.
  3. Stating your hypotheses clearly, test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, the doctor's belief.
  4. From a sample of size 20, find the greatest number of patients who need to recover for the test in part (c) to be significant at the \(1 \%\) level.
Edexcel S2 2018 June Q5
16 marks Standard +0.3
5. Past records show that the proportion of customers buying organic vegetables from Tesson supermarket is 0.35 During a particular day, a random sample of 40 customers from Tesson supermarket was taken and 18 of them bought organic vegetables.
  1. Test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not this provides evidence that the proportion of customers who bought organic vegetables has increased. State your hypotheses clearly. The manager of Tesson supermarket claims that the proportion of customers buying organic eggs is different from the proportion of those buying organic vegetables. To test this claim the manager decides to take a random sample of 50 customers.
  2. Using a \(5 \%\) level of significance, find the critical region to enable the Tesson supermarket manager to test her claim. The probability for each tail of the region should be as close as possible to \(2.5 \%\) During a particular day, a random sample of 50 customers from Tesson supermarket is taken and 8 of them bought organic eggs.
  3. Using your answer to part (b), state whether or not this sample supports the manager's claim. Use a \(5 \%\) level of significance.
  4. State the actual significance level of this test. The proportion of customers who buy organic fruit from Tesson supermarket is 0.2 During a particular day, a random sample of 200 customers from Tesson supermarket is taken. Using a suitable approximation, the probability that fewer than \(n\) of these customers bought organic fruit is 0.0465 correct to 4 decimal places.
  5. Find the value of \(n\).
Edexcel S2 Q4
12 marks Standard +0.3
4. From past records a manufacturer of glass vases knows that \(15 \%\) of the production have slight defects. To monitor the production, a random sample of 20 vases is checked each day and the number of vases with slight defects is recorded.
  1. Using a 5\% significance level, find the critical regions for a two-tailed test of the hypothesis that the probability of a vase with slight defects is 0.15 . The probability of rejecting, in either tail, should be as close as possible to \(2.5 \%\).
  2. State the actual significance level of the test described in part (a). A shop sells these vases at a rate of 2.5 per week. In the 4 weeks of December the shop sold 15 vases.
  3. Stating your hypotheses clearly test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence that the rate of sales per week had increased in December.
    (6 marks)
Edexcel S3 2013 June Q8
17 marks Standard +0.8
8. A farmer supplies both duck eggs and chicken eggs. The weights of duck eggs, \(D\) grams, and chicken eggs, \(C\) grams, are such that $$D \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 54,1.2 ^ { 2 } \right) \text { and } C \sim \mathrm {~N} \left( 44,0.8 ^ { 2 } \right)$$
  1. Find the probability that the weights of 2 randomly selected duck eggs will differ by more than 3 g .
  2. Find the probability that the weight of a randomly selected chicken egg is less than \(\frac { 4 } { 5 }\) of the weight of a randomly selected duck egg. Eggs are packed in boxes which contain either 6 randomly selected duck eggs or 6 randomly selected chicken eggs. The weight of an empty box has distribution \(\mathrm { N } \left( 28 , \sqrt { 5 } ^ { 2 } \right)\).
  3. Find the probability that a full box of duck eggs weighs at least 50 g more than a full box of chicken eggs.
Edexcel S2 Q3
10 marks Standard +0.3
3. A die is rolled 60 times, and results in 16 sixes.
  1. Use a suitable approximation to test, at the \(5 \%\) significance level, whether the probability of scoring a six is \(\frac { 1 } { 6 }\) or not. State your hypotheses clearly.
  2. Describe how you would change the test if you wished to investigate whether the probability of scoring a six is greater than \(\frac { 1 } { 6 }\). Carry out this modified test.
Edexcel S2 Q3
8 marks Moderate -0.3
3. A coin is tossed 20 times, giving 16 heads.
  1. Test at the \(1 \%\) significance level whether the coin is fair, stating your hypotheses clearly.
  2. Find the critical region for the same test at the \(0.1 \%\) significance level.
Edexcel S2 Q3
10 marks Moderate -0.8
3. The Driving Theory Test includes 30 questions which require one answer to be selected from four options.
  1. Phil ticks answers at random. Find how many of the 30 he should expect to get right.
  2. If he gets 15 correct, decide whether this is evidence that he has actually done some revision. Use a \(5 \%\) significance level. Another candidate, Sarah, has revised and has a 0.9 probability of getting each question right.
  3. Determine the expected number of answers that Sarah will get right.
  4. Find the probability that Sarah gets more than 25 correct answers out of 30.
Edexcel S2 Q3
7 marks Standard +0.3
3. The random variable \(X\) is modelled by a binomial distribution \(\mathrm { B } ( n , p )\), with \(n = 20\) and \(p\) unknown. It is suspected that \(p = 0 \cdot 4\).
  1. Find the critical region for the test of \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 } : p = 0.4\) against \(\mathrm { H } _ { 1 } : p \neq 0.4\), at the \(5 \%\) significance level.
  2. Find the critical region if, instead, the alternative hypothesis is \(\mathrm { H } _ { 1 } : p < 0.4\).
Edexcel S2 Q5
13 marks Standard +0.3
5. A traffic analyst is interested in the number of heavy lorries passing a certain junction. He counts the numbers of lorries in 100 five-minute intervals, and gets the following results:
Number of lorries in
five-minute interval, \(X\)
01234567
Number of intervals7132519151074
Q. 5 continued on next page ... \section*{STATISTICS 2 (A) TEST PAPER 9 Page 2} continued ...
  1. Show that the mean of \(X\) is 3 , and find the variance of \(X\).
  2. Give two reasons for thinking that \(X\) can be modelled by a Poisson distribution. (2 marks) After a new landfill site has been established nearby, a member of an environmental group notices that 18 lorries pass the junction in a period of 15 minutes. The group claims that this is evidence that the mean number of lorries per five-minute interval has increased.
  3. Test whether the group's claim is valid. Work at the \(5 \%\) significance level, and state your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 Q3
9 marks Standard +0.3
3. A primary school teacher finds that exactly half of his year 6 class have mobile phones. He decides to investigate whether the proportion of pupils with mobile phones is different from 0.5 in the year 5 class at his school. There are 25 pupils in the year 5 class.
  1. State the hypotheses that he should use.
  2. Find the largest critical region for this test such that the probability in each "tail" is less than \(2.5 \%\).
  3. Determine the significance level of this test. He finds that eight of the year 5 pupils have mobile phones and concludes that there is not sufficient evidence of the proportion being different from 0.5
  4. Stating the new hypotheses clearly, find if the number of year 5 pupils with mobile phones would have been significant if he had tested whether or not the proportion was less than 0.5 and used the largest critical region with a probability of less than \(5 \%\).
    (3 marks)
Edexcel S2 Q2
9 marks Moderate -0.8
2. A driving instructor keeps records of all the learners she has taught. In order to analyse her success rate she wishes to take a random sample of 120 of these learners.
  1. Suggest a suitable sampling frame and identify the sampling units. She believes that only 1 in 20 of the people she teaches fail to pass their test in their first two attempts. She decides to use her sample to test whether or not the proportion is different from this.
  2. Using a suitable approximation and stating clearly the hypotheses she should use, find the largest critical region for this test such that the probability in each "tail" is less than \(2.5 \%\).
  3. State the significance level of this test.
Edexcel S4 2011 June Q4
12 marks Challenging +1.2
4. A proportion \(p\) of letters sent by a company are incorrectly addressed and if \(p\) is thought to be greater than 0.05 then action is taken.
Using \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 } : p = 0.05\) and \(\mathrm { H } _ { 1 } : p > 0.05\), a manager from the company takes a random sample of 40 letters and rejects \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 }\) if the number of incorrectly addressed letters is more than 3 .
  1. Find the size of this test.
  2. Find the probability of a Type II error in the case where \(p\) is in fact 0.10 Table 1 below gives some values, to 2 decimal places, of the power function of this test. \begin{table}[h]
    \(p\)0.0750.1000.1250.1500.1750.2000.225
    Power0.35\(s\)0.750.870.940.970.99
    \captionsetup{labelformat=empty} \caption{Table 1}
    \end{table}
  3. Write down the value of \(s\). A visiting consultant uses an alternative system to test the same hypotheses. A sample of 15 letters is taken. If these are all correctly addressed then \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 }\) is accepted. If 2 or more are found to have been incorrectly addressed then \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 }\) is rejected. If only one is found to be incorrectly addressed then a further random sample of 15 is taken and \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 }\) is rejected if 2 or more are found to have been incorrectly addressed in this second sample, otherwise \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 }\) is accepted.
  4. Find the size of the test used by the consultant. \section*{Question 4 continues on page 8} For your convenience Table 1 is repeated here \begin{table}[h]
    \(p\)0.0750.1000.1250.1500.1750.2000.225
    Power0.35\(s\)0.750.870.940.970.99
    \captionsetup{labelformat=empty} \caption{Table 1}
    \end{table} Figure 1 shows the graph of the power function of the test used by the consultant. \begin{figure}[h]
    \includegraphics[alt={},max width=\textwidth]{8dfc721d-4782-4482-9976-11189370f3b7-07_1712_1673_660_130} \captionsetup{labelformat=empty} \caption{Figure 1}
    \end{figure}
  5. On Figure 1 draw the graph of the power function of the manager's test.
    (2)
  6. State, giving your reasons, which test you would recommend.
    (2)
Edexcel S4 2013 June Q3
10 marks Challenging +1.2
3. The number of houses sold per week by a firm of estate agents follows a Poisson distribution with mean 2 . The firm believes that the appointment of a new salesman will increase the number of houses sold. The firm tests its belief by recording the number of houses sold, \(x\), in the week following the appointment. The firm sets up the hypotheses \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 } : \lambda = 2\) and \(\mathrm { H } _ { 1 } : \lambda > 2\), where \(\lambda\) is the mean number of houses sold per week, and rejects the null hypothesis if \(x \geqslant 3\)
  1. Find the size of the test.
  2. Show that the power function for this test is $$1 - \frac { 1 } { 2 } e ^ { - \lambda } \left( 2 + 2 \lambda + \lambda ^ { 2 } \right)$$ The table below gives the values of the power function to 2 decimal places. \begin{table}[h]
    \(\lambda\)2.53.03.54.05.07.0
    Power0.46\(r\)0.68\(s\)0.880.97
    \captionsetup{labelformat=empty} \caption{Table 1}
    \end{table}
  3. Calculate the values of \(r\) and \(s\).
  4. Draw a graph of the power function on the graph paper provided on page 6
  5. Find the range of values of \(\lambda\) for which the power of this test is greater than 0.6 For your convenience Table 1 is repeated here.
    \(\lambda\)2.53.03.54.05.07.0
    Power0.46\(r\)0.68\(s\)0.880.97
    \begin{figure}[h]
    \captionsetup{labelformat=empty} \caption{Table 1} \includegraphics[alt={},max width=\textwidth]{4f096806-33da-453f-a4c1-12be20d1a96d-06_2125_1603_614_166}
    \end{figure} \includegraphics[max width=\textwidth, alt={}, center]{4f096806-33da-453f-a4c1-12be20d1a96d-07_72_47_2615_1886}
Edexcel S4 2013 June Q5
17 marks Challenging +1.8
5. Water is tested at various stages during a purification process by an environmental scientist. A certain organism occurs randomly in the water at a rate of \(\lambda\) every 10 ml . The scientist selects a random sample of 20 ml of water to check whether there is evidence that \(\lambda\) is greater than 1 . The criterion the scientist uses for rejecting the hypothesis that \(\lambda = 1\) is that there are 4 or more organisms in the sample of 20 ml .
  1. Find the size of the test.
  2. When \(\lambda = 2.5\) find P (Type II error). A statistician suggests using an alternative test. The statistician's test involves taking a random sample of 10 ml and rejecting the hypothesis that \(\lambda = 1\) if 2 or more organisms are present but accepting the hypothesis if no organisms are in the sample. If only 1 organism is found then a second random sample of 10 ml is taken and the hypothesis is rejected if 2 or more organisms are present, otherwise the hypothesis is accepted.
  3. Show that the power of the statistician's test is given by $$1 - \mathrm { e } ^ { - \lambda } - \lambda ( 1 + \lambda ) \mathrm { e } ^ { - 2 \lambda }$$ Table 1 below gives some values, to 2 decimal places, of the power function of the statistician's test. \begin{table}[h] \end{table} Table 1 Figure 1 shows a graph of the power function for the scientist's test.
    (e) On the same axes draw the graph of the power function for the statistician's test. Given that it takes 20 minutes to collect and test a 20 ml sample and 15 minutes to collect and test a 10 ml sample
    (f) show that the expected time of the statistician's test is slower than the scientist's test for \(\lambda \mathrm { e } ^ { - \lambda } > \frac { 1 } { 3 }\) (g) By considering the times when \(\lambda = 1\) and \(\lambda = 2\) together with the power curves in part (e) suggest, giving a reason, which test you would use.
    (2) \begin{figure}[h]
    \includegraphics[alt={},max width=\textwidth]{399f7507-4878-45ad-b77e-02ebd807ed75-10_1185_1157_1452_392} \captionsetup{labelformat=empty} \caption{Figure 1}
    \end{figure} \includegraphics[max width=\textwidth, alt={}, center]{399f7507-4878-45ad-b77e-02ebd807ed75-11_81_47_2622_1886}
Edexcel S4 2017 June Q2
8 marks Standard +0.8
  1. The number of accidents per year in Daftstown follows a Poisson distribution with mean \(\lambda\). The value of \(\lambda\) has previously been 6 but Jonty claims that since the Council increased the speed limit, the value of \(\lambda\) has increased.
Jonty records the number of accidents in Daftstown in the first year after the speed limit was increased. He plans to test, at the \(5 \%\) significance level, whether or not there is evidence of an increase in the mean number of accidents in Daftstown per year.
  1. Stating your hypotheses clearly, calculate the probability of a Type I error for this test. Given that there were 9 accidents in the first year after the speed limit was increased,
  2. state, giving a reason, whether or not there is evidence to support Jonty's claim.
  3. Given that the value of \(\lambda\) has actually increased to 8, calculate the probability of drawing the conclusion, using this test, that the number of accidents per year in Daftstown has not increased.
Edexcel S4 Q3
13 marks Standard +0.8
3. A certain vaccine is known to be only \(70 \%\) effective against a particular virus; thus \(30 \%\) of those vaccinated will actually catch the virus. In order to test whether or not a new and more expensive vaccine provides better protection against the same virus, a random sample of 30 people were chosen and given the new vaccine. If fewer than 6 people contracted the virus the new vaccine would be considered more effective than the current one.
  1. Write down suitable hypotheses for this test.
  2. Find the probability of making a Type I error.
  3. Find the power of this test if the new vaccine is
    1. \(80 \%\) effective,
    2. \(90 \%\) effective. An independent research organisation decided to test the new vaccine on a random sample of 50 people to see if it could be considered more than \(70 \%\) effective. They required the probability of a Type I error to be as close as possible to 0.05 .
  4. Find the critical region for this test.
  5. State the size of this critical region.
  6. Find the power of this test if the new vaccine is
    1. \(80 \%\) effective,
    2. \(90 \%\) effective.
  7. Give one advantage and one disadvantage of the second test.