5.05c Hypothesis test: normal distribution for population mean

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OCR Further Statistics Specimen Q7
9 marks Moderate -0.3
7 Sweet pea plants grown using a standard plant food have a mean height of 1.6 m . A new plant food is used for a random sample of 49 randomly chosen plants and the heights, \(x\) metres, of this sample can be summarised by the following. $$\begin{aligned} n & = 49 \\ \Sigma x & = 74.48 \\ \Sigma x ^ { 2 } & = 120.8896 \end{aligned}$$ Test, at the \(5 \%\) significance level, whether, when the new plant food is used, the mean height of sweet pea plants is less than 1.6 m .
Edexcel S2 2019 January Q6
12 marks Moderate -0.3
  1. (a) State the conditions under which the Poisson distribution may be used as an approximation to the binomial distribution. A factory produces tyres for bicycles and \(0.25 \%\) of the tyres produced are defective. A company orders 3000 tyres from the factory.
    (b) Find, using a Poisson approximation, the probability that there are more than 7 defective tyres in the company's order.
  2. At the company \(40 \%\) of employees are known to cycle to work. A random sample of 150 employees is taken. The random variable \(C\) represents the number of employees in the sample who cycle to work.
  1. Describe a suitable sampling frame that can be used to take this sample.
  2. Explain what you understand by the sampling distribution of \(C\) Louis uses a normal approximation to calculate the probability that at most \(\alpha\) employees in the sample cycle to work. He forgets to use a continuity correction and obtains the incorrect probability 0.0668 Find, showing all stages of your working,
  3. the value of \(\alpha\)
  4. the correct probability.
Edexcel S2 2015 June Q4
5 marks Challenging +1.2
  1. A single observation \(x\) is to be taken from a Poisson distribution with parameter \(\lambda\) This observation is to be used to test, at a \(5 \%\) level of significance,
$$\mathrm { H } _ { 0 } : \lambda = k \quad \mathrm { H } _ { 1 } : \lambda \neq k$$ where \(k\) is a positive integer.
Given that the critical region for this test is \(( X = 0 ) \cup ( X \geqslant 9 )\)
  1. find the value of \(k\), justifying your answer.
  2. Find the actual significance level of this test.
Edexcel S2 2015 June Q6
15 marks Moderate -0.3
6. Past information at a computer shop shows that \(40 \%\) of customers buy insurance when they purchase a product. In a random sample of 30 customers, \(X\) buy insurance.
  1. Write down a suitable model for the distribution of \(X\).
  2. State an assumption that has been made for the model in part (a) to be suitable. The probability that fewer than \(r\) customers buy insurance is less than 0.05
  3. Find the largest possible value of \(r\). A second random sample, of 100 customers, is taken.
    The probability that at least \(t\) of these customers buy insurance is 0.938 , correct to 3 decimal places.
  4. Using a suitable approximation, find the value of \(t\). The shop now offers an extended warranty on all products. Following this, a random sample of 25 customers is taken and 6 of them buy insurance.
  5. Test, at the \(10 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence that the proportion of customers who buy insurance has decreased. State your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 2016 June Q3
6 marks Moderate -0.3
3. A single observation \(x\) is to be taken from \(X \sim \mathrm {~B} ( 12 , p )\) This observation is used to test \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 } : p = 0.45\) against \(\mathrm { H } _ { 1 } : p > 0.45\)
  1. Using a \(5 \%\) level of significance, find the critical region for this test.
  2. State the actual significance level of this test. The value of the observation is found to be 9
  3. State the conclusion that can be made based on this observation.
  4. State whether or not this conclusion would change if the same test was carried out at the
    1. 10\% level of significance,
    2. \(1 \%\) level of significance.
Edexcel S2 2016 June Q7
15 marks Standard +0.3
7. Last year \(4 \%\) of cars tested in a large chain of garages failed an emissions test. A random sample of \(n\) of these cars is taken. The number of cars that fail the test is represented by \(X\) Given that the standard deviation of \(X\) is 1.44
    1. find the value of \(n\)
    2. find \(\mathrm { E } ( X )\) A random sample of 20 of the cars tested is taken.
  1. Find the probability that all of these cars passed the emissions test. Given that at least 1 of these cars failed the emissions test,
  2. find the probability that exactly 3 of these cars failed the emissions test. A car mechanic claims that more than \(4 \%\) of the cars tested at the garage chain this year are failing the emissions test. A random sample of 125 of these cars is taken and 10 of these cars fail the emissions test.
  3. Using a suitable approximation, test whether or not there is evidence to support the mechanic's claim. Use a \(5 \%\) level of significance and state your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 2017 June Q1
11 marks Standard +0.3
At a particular junction on a train line, signal failures are known to occur randomly at a rate of 1 every 4 days.
  1. Find the probability that there are no signal failures on a randomly selected day.
  2. Find the probability that there is at least 1 signal failure on each of the next 3 days.
  3. Find the probability that in a randomly selected 7 -day week, there are exactly 5 days with no signal failures. Repair works are carried out on the line. After these repair works, the number, \(f\), of signal failures in a 32-day period is recorded. A test is carried out, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, to determine whether or not there has been a decrease in the rate of signal failures following the repair works.
  4. State the hypotheses for this test.
  5. Find the largest value of \(f\) for which the null hypothesis should be rejected.
Edexcel S2 2017 June Q4
13 marks Challenging +1.2
4. In a large population, past records show that 1 in 200 adults has a particular allergy. In a random sample of 700 adults selected from the population, estimate
    1. the mean number of adults with the allergy,
    2. the standard deviation of the number of adults with the allergy. Give your answer to 3 decimal places. A doctor claims that the past records are out of date and the proportion of adults with the allergy is higher than the records indicate. A random sample of 500 adults is taken from the population and 5 are found to have the allergy. A test of the doctor's claim is to be carried out at the 5\% level of significance.
    1. State the hypotheses for this test.
    2. Using a suitable approximation, carry out the test.
      (6) It is also claimed that \(30 \%\) of those with the allergy take medication for it daily. To test this claim, a random sample of \(n\) people with the allergy is taken. The random variable \(Y\) represents the number of people in the sample who take medication for the allergy daily. A two-tailed test, at the \(1 \%\) level of significance, is carried out to see if the proportion differs from 30\% The critical region for the test is \(Y = 0\) or \(Y \geqslant w\)
  1. Find the smallest possible value of \(n\) and the corresponding value of \(w\)
Edexcel S2 2018 June Q2
12 marks Standard +0.3
2. John weaves cloth by hand. Emma believes that faults are randomly distributed in John's cloth at a rate of more than 4 per 50 metres of cloth. To check her belief, Emma takes a random sample of 100 metres of the cloth and finds that it contains 14 faults.
  1. Stating your hypotheses clearly, test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, Emma's belief. Armani also weaves cloth by hand. He knows that faults are randomly distributed in his cloth at a rate of 4 per 50 metres of cloth. Emma decides to buy a large amount of Armani's cloth to sell in pieces of length \(l\) metres. She chooses \(l\) so that the probability of no faults in a piece is exactly 0.9
  2. Show that \(l = 1.3\) to 2 significant figures. Emma sells 5000 of these pieces of cloth of length 1.3 metres. She makes a profit of \(\pounds 2.50\) on each piece of cloth that does not contain any faults but a loss of \(\pounds 0.50\) on any piece that contains at least one fault.
  3. Find Emma's expected profit.
Edexcel S2 2018 June Q7
10 marks Standard +0.3
7. A manufacturer produces packets of sweets. Each packet contains 25 sweets. The manufacturer claims that, on average, 40\% of the sweets in each packet are red. A packet is selected at random.
  1. Using a \(1 \%\) level of significance, find the critical region for a two-tailed test that the proportion of red sweets is 0.40 You should state the probability in each tail, which should be as close as possible to 0.005
  2. Find the actual significance level of this test. The manufacturer changes the production process to try to reduce the number of red sweets. She chooses 2 packets at random and finds that 8 of the sweets are red.
  3. Test, at the \(1 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence that the manufacturer's changes to the production process have been successful. State your hypotheses clearly.
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    Q7
Edexcel S2 2021 June Q1
14 marks Standard +0.3
Spany sells seeds and claims that \(5 \%\) of its pansy seeds do not germinate. A packet of pansy seeds contains 20 seeds. Each seed germinates independently of the other seeds.
  1. Find the probability that in a packet of Spany's pansy seeds
    1. more than 2 but fewer than 5 seeds do not germinate,
    2. more than 18 seeds germinate. Jem buys 5 packets of Spany's pansy seeds.
  2. Calculate the probability that all of these packets contain more than 18 seeds that germinate. Jem believes that Spany's claim is incorrect. She believes that the percentage of pansy seeds that do not germinate is greater than 5\%
  3. Write down the hypotheses for a suitable test to examine Jem's belief. Jem planted all of the 100 seeds she bought from Spany and found that 8 did not germinate.
  4. Using a suitable approximation, carry out the test using a \(5 \%\) level of significance.
Edexcel S2 2021 June Q2
15 marks Standard +0.3
Luis makes and sells rugs. He knows that faults occur randomly in his rugs at a rate of 3 every \(4 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\)
  1. Find the probability of there being exactly 5 faults in one of his rugs that is \(4 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\) in size.
  2. Find the probability that there are more than 5 faults in one of his rugs that is \(6 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\) in size. Luis makes a rug that is \(4 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\) in size and finds it has exactly 5 faults in it.
  3. Write down the probability that the next rug that Luis makes, which is \(4 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\) in size, will have exactly 5 faults. Give a reason for your answer. A small rug has dimensions 80 cm by 150 cm . Faults still occur randomly at a rate of 3 every \(4 \mathrm {~m} ^ { 2 }\) Luis makes a profit of \(\pounds 80\) on each small rug he sells that contains no faults but a profit of \(\pounds 60\) on any small rug he sells that contains faults. Luis sells \(n\) small rugs and expects to make a profit of at least \(\pounds 4000\)
  4. Calculate the minimum value of \(n\) Luis wishes to increase the productivity of his business and employs Rhiannon. Faults also occur randomly in Rhiannon's rugs and independently to faults made by Luis. Luis randomly selects 10 small rugs made by Rhiannon and finds 13 faults.
  5. Test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence to support the suggestion that the rate at which faults occur is higher for Rhiannon than for Luis. State your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 2022 June Q4
9 marks Standard +0.3
  1. Past evidence shows that \(7 \%\) of pears grown by a farmer are unfit for sale.
This season it is believed that the proportion of pears that are unfit for sale has decreased. To test this belief a random sample of \(n\) pears is taken. The random variable \(Y\) represents the number of pears in the sample that are unfit for sale.
  1. Find the smallest value of \(n\) such that \(Y = 0\) lies in the critical region for this test at a \(5 \%\) level of significance. In the past, \(8 \%\) of the pears grown by the farmer weigh more than 180 g . This season the farmer believes the proportion of pears weighing more than 180 g has changed. She takes a random sample of 75 pears and finds that 11 of them weigh more than 180 g .
  2. Test, using a suitable approximation, whether there is evidence of a change in the proportion of pears weighing more than 180 g .
    You should use a \(5 \%\) level of significance and state your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 2023 June Q4
13 marks Moderate -0.8
  1. Given \(n\) is large, state a condition for which the binomial distribution \(\mathrm { B } ( n , p )\) can be reasonably approximated by a Poisson distribution. A manufacturer produces candles. Those candles that pass a quality inspection are suitable for sale. It is known that 2\% of the candles produced by the manufacturer are not suitable for sale. A random sample of 125 candles produced by the manufacturer is taken.
  2. Use a suitable approximation to find the probability that no more than 6 of the candles are not suitable for sale. The manufacturer also produces candle holders.
    Charlie believes that 5\% of candle holders produced by the factory have minor defects.
    The manufacturer claims that the true proportion is less than \(5 \%\) To test the manufacturer's claim, a random sample of 30 candle holders is taken and none of them are found to contain minor defects.
    1. Carry out a test of the manufacturer's claim using a \(5 \%\) level of significance. You should state your hypotheses clearly.
    2. Give a reason why this is not an appropriate test. Ashley suggests changing the sample size to 50
  3. Comment on whether or not this change would make the test appropriate. Give a reason for your answer.
Edexcel S2 2024 June Q1
13 marks Standard +0.3
1 A garage sells tyres. The number of customers arriving at the garage to buy tyres in a 10-minute period is modelled by a Poisson distribution with mean 2
  1. Find the probability that
    1. fewer than 4 customers arrive to buy tyres in the next 10 minutes,
    2. more than 5 customers arrive to buy tyres in the next 10 minutes. The manager randomly selects 20 non-overlapping, 30-minute periods.
  2. Find the probability that there are between 4 and 7 (inclusive) customers arriving to buy tyres in exactly 15 of these 30-minute periods. The manager believes that placing an advert in the local paper will lead to a significant increase in the number of customers arriving at the garage.
    A week after the advert is placed, the manager randomly selects a 25 -minute period and finds that 10 customers arrive at the garage to buy tyres.
  3. Test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence to support the manager's belief.
    State your hypotheses clearly.
  4. Explain why the Poisson distribution is unlikely to be valid for the number of tyres sold during a 10-minute period.
Edexcel S2 2024 June Q3
15 marks Moderate -0.8
3 Jian owns a large group of shops. She decides to visit a random sample of the shops to check if the stocktaking system is being used incorrectly.
  1. Suggest a suitable sampling frame for Jian to use.
  2. Identify the sampling units.
  3. Give one advantage and one disadvantage of taking a sample rather than a census. Jian believes that the stocktaking system is being used incorrectly in \(40 \%\) of the shops.
    To investigate her belief, a random sample of 30 of the shops is taken.
  4. Using a 5\% level of significance, find the critical region for a two-tailed test of Jian's belief.
    You should state the probability in each tail, which should each be as close as possible to 2.5\% The total number of shops, in the sample of 30, where the stocktaking system is being used incorrectly is 20
  5. Using the critical region from part (d), state what this suggests about Jian's belief. Give a reason for your answer. Jian introduces a new, simpler, stocktaking system to all the shops.
    She takes a random sample of 150 shops and finds that in 47 of these shops the new stocktaking system is being used incorrectly.
  6. Using a suitable approximation, test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is evidence that the proportion of shops where the stocktaking system is being used incorrectly is now less than 0.4 You should state your hypotheses and show your working clearly.
Edexcel S2 2018 Specimen Q4
7 marks Standard +0.3
4. Accidents occur randomly at a crossroads at a rate of 0.5 per month. A researcher records the number of accidents, \(X\), which occur at the crossroads in a year.
  1. Find \(\mathrm { P } ( 5 \leqslant X < 7 )\) A new system is introduced at the crossroads. In the first 18 months, 4 accidents occur at the crossroads.
  2. Test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not there is reason to believe that the new system has led to a reduction in the mean number of accidents per month. State your hypotheses clearly.
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Edexcel S2 Specimen Q5
15 marks Standard +0.3
A company has a large number of regular users logging onto its website. On average 4 users every hour fail to connect to the company's website at their first attempt.
  1. Explain why the Poisson distribution may be a suitable model in this case. Find the probability that, in a randomly chosen \(\mathbf { 2 }\) hour period,
    1. all users connect at their first attempt,
    2. at least 4 users fail to connect at their first attempt. The company suffered from a virus infecting its computer system. During this infection it was found that the number of users failing to connect at their first attempt, over a 12 hour period, was 60 .
  2. Using a suitable approximation, test whether or not the mean number of users per hour who failed to connect at their first attempt had increased. Use a \(5 \%\) level of significance and state your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 Specimen Q6
15 marks Standard +0.3
6. A company claims that a quarter of the bolts sent to them are faulty. To test this claim the number of faulty bolts in a random sample of 50 is recorded.
  1. Give two reasons why a binomial distribution may be a suitable model for the number of faulty bolts in the sample.
  2. Using a 5\% significance level, find the critical region for a two-tailed test of the hypothesis that the probability of a bolt being faulty is \(\frac { 1 } { 4 }\). The probability of rejection in either tail should be as close as possible to 0.025
  3. Find the actual significance level of this test. In the sample of 50 the actual number of faulty bolts was 8 .
  4. Comment on the company's claim in the light of this value. Justify your answer. The machine making the bolts was reset and another sample of 50 bolts was taken. Only 5 were found to be faulty.
  5. Test at the \(1 \%\) level of significance whether or not the probability of a faulty bolt has decreased. State your hypotheses clearly.
Edexcel S2 2002 January Q2
7 marks Standard +0.3
2. The number of houses sold per week by a firm of estate agents follows a Poisson distribution with mean 2.5. The firm appoints a new salesman and wants to find out whether or not house sales increase as a result. After the appointment of the salesman, the number of house sales in a randomly chosen 4-week period is 14. Stating your hypotheses clearly test, at the \(5 \%\) level of significance, whether or not the new salesman has increased house sales.
Edexcel S2 2009 June Q2
6 marks Standard +0.3
2. An effect of a certain disease is that a small number of the red blood cells are deformed. Emily has this disease and the deformed blood cells occur randomly at a rate of 2.5 per ml of her blood. Following a course of treatment, a random sample of 2 ml of Emily's blood is found to contain only 1 deformed red blood cell. Stating your hypotheses clearly and using a \(5 \%\) level of significance, test whether or not there has been a decrease in the number of deformed red blood cells in Emily's blood.
Edexcel S2 2009 June Q4
8 marks Standard +0.3
4. Past records suggest that \(30 \%\) of customers who buy baked beans from a large supermarket buy them in single tins. A new manager questions whether or not there has been a change in the proportion of customers who buy baked beans in single tins. A random sample of 20 customers who had bought baked beans was taken.
  1. Using a \(10 \%\) level of significance, find the critical region for a two-tailed test to answer the manager's question. You should state the probability of rejection in each tail which should be less than 0.05 .
  2. Write down the actual significance level of a test based on your critical region from part (a). The manager found that 11 customers from the sample of 20 had bought baked beans in single tins.
  3. Comment on this finding in the light of your critical region found in part (a).
Edexcel S2 2011 June Q2
10 marks Standard +0.3
2. A traffic officer monitors the rate at which vehicles pass a fixed point on a motorway. When the rate exceeds 36 vehicles per minute he must switch on some speed restrictions to improve traffic flow.
  1. Suggest a suitable model to describe the number of vehicles passing the fixed point in a 15 s interval. The traffic officer records 12 vehicles passing the fixed point in a 15 s interval.
  2. Stating your hypotheses clearly, and using a \(5 \%\) level of significance, test whether or not the traffic officer has sufficient evidence to switch on the speed restrictions.
  3. Using a \(5 \%\) level of significance, determine the smallest number of vehicles the traffic officer must observe in a 10 s interval in order to have sufficient evidence to switch on the speed restrictions.
Edexcel S2 2011 June Q6
14 marks Standard +0.3
A shopkeeper knows, from past records, that \(15 \%\) of customers buy an item from the display next to the till. After a refurbishment of the shop, he takes a random sample of 30 customers and finds that only 1 customer has bought an item from the display next to the till.
  1. Stating your hypotheses clearly, and using a \(5 \%\) level of significance, test whether or not there has been a change in the proportion of customers buying an item from the display next to the till. During the refurbishment a new sandwich display was installed. Before the refurbishment \(20 \%\) of customers bought sandwiches. The shopkeeper claims that the proportion of customers buying sandwiches has now increased. He selects a random sample of 120 customers and finds that 31 of them have bought sandwiches.
  2. Using a suitable approximation and stating your hypotheses clearly, test the shopkeeper's claim. Use a \(10 \%\) level of significance.
Edexcel S2 2012 June Q2
5 marks Standard +0.3
2. A test statistic has a distribution \(\mathrm { B } ( 25 , p )\). Given that $$\mathrm { H } _ { 0 } : p = 0.5 \quad \mathrm { H } _ { 1 } : p \neq 0.5$$
  1. find the critical region for the test statistic such that the probability in each tail is as close as possible to \(2.5 \%\).
  2. State the probability of incorrectly rejecting \(\mathrm { H } _ { 0 }\) using this critical region.