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Course Notes - Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Course Notes - Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Course Notes - Department of Mathematics and Statistics

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Fred’s mate Bob pointed out that the statistical test Fred used is flawedsince it assumes the independence between the sets <strong>of</strong> values, which isclearly not the case as a heavier person might end up heavier thana lighter persons initial weight even though he has lost weight. Hesuggested that instead, Fred takes the differences in weight for each <strong>of</strong>his friends <strong>and</strong> finds a 95% confidence interval for the mean <strong>of</strong> thesedifferences.The mean weight loss <strong>of</strong> Fred’s friends was 3 kg, with a st<strong>and</strong>ard deviation<strong>of</strong> 2.58 kg. In this situation the value <strong>of</strong> ν has decreased to 9,as there are now only 10 pairs <strong>of</strong> weights used (each <strong>of</strong> the differences).So we use t 9 = 2.2623 ± 2.262 × 2.58 √10giving a confidence interval <strong>of</strong> (1.154,4.84), which is a different resultto before. Now zero is not included in the confidence interval meaningthat there is evidence that the weight loss program works. Howeversince 5 is still excluded, it would appear the weight loss program willnot give Fred his desired result.118

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