MT230

Exercise 1 - Solutions
1. Denote by Y the jar fill variable. Then Y ∼ N (205, 2.52 ). So,
Y − 205
Z= ∼ N (0, 1).
2.5

Using the tables of normal distribution, percentage of jar fills

(i) greater than 202.5 grams is

P (Y > 202.5) = P ((Y −205)/2.5 > (202.5−205)/2.5) = P (Z > −1) = P (Z < 1) = 0.8413,

or 84.13%;

(ii) between 201.25 and 208.75 grams is

P (201.25 < Y < 208.75) = P (−1.5 < Z < 1.5) = 2P (Z < 1.5) − 1 = 0.8664,

or 86.64%;

(iii) greater than 212.5 grams is

100%P (Y > 212.5) = 100%P (Z > 3) = 100%(1 − P (Z ≤ 3)) = 0.135%.

2. i) The null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis are

H0 : µ = 350,

H1 : µ 6= 350
The t-statistic
X − µ0
T = √
s/ n
has t-distribution with 11 − 1 = 10 degrees of freedom.
The observed value is
348 − 350
Tobs = √ = −3.31662 ≈ −3.3.
2.0/ 11
a) The p-value is

2P (t10 ≥ tobs ) = 2P (t10 ≥ 3.3) = 2(1 − P (t10 ≤ 3.3) = 2(1 − 0.996) = 0.008,

where the value P (t10 ≤ 3.3) = 0.996 is found in the statistical tables. Since the
p-value is smaller than 0.05, we reject the null hypothesis.
b) From the tables of t distribution with 10 degrees of freedom, the critical value is
tn−1;α/2 = t10;0.025 = 2.228. So, the rejection region is (−∞, −2, 228) ∪ (2.228, ∞).

1
 The observed value -3.3 falls outside the rejection region. Therefore, we reject the
null hypothesis that the mean content is 350.
ii) The 95% CI for the unknown population mean is
s 2.0
X ± tn−1;α/2 √ = 348 ± 2.228 √ = (346.656, 349.344).
n 11
The null value 350 lies outside the confidence interval, therefore, the null hypothesis
is rejected at 5% significance level.

3. The sample mean Ȳ is an unbiased estimator of µ since

n
! n
1X 1X 1
E(Ȳ ) = E Yi = E(Yi ) = n µ = µ.
n i=1 n i=1 n

Also, ! !
n n
1X 1 X
Var(Ȳ ) = Var Yi = 2 Var Yi ,
n i=1 n i=1

and since Y1 , Y2 , · · · , Yn are independent,

n n
1 X 1 X 2
Var(Ȳ ) = 2 Var(Yi ) = 2 σ
n i=1 n i=1 i

as stated. If σi = σ, then the formula simplifies to

σ2
Var(Ȳ ) = .
n

4. See MT130 notes.

5. a) See MT130 notes.

b) The random variables are independent, therefore Cov(X, Y ) = 0. Also, Var(X) =
5.0 and Var(Y ) = 3.0 since X ∼ N (2.0, 5.0) and Y ∼ N (0, 3.0). By the formula in
Part a) we obtain that
 
X Y 5.0 3.0
Var √ + √ = + = 2.
5 3 5.0 3.0