Overlap of Confidence Intervals In the article “On Judging the Significance of Differences by Examining the Overlap Between Confidence Intervals,” by Schenker and Gentleman (American Statistician, Vol. 55, No. 3), the authors consider sample data in this statement: “Independent simple random samples, each of size 200, have been drawn, and 112 people in the first sample have the attribute, whereas 88 people in the second sample have the attribute.”


a. Use the methods of this section to construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the difference p1-p2. What does the result suggest about the equality of p1 and p2
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Are Nuclear Plants Safe? In a Gallup poll of 1038 adults, 47% said that nuclear plants are safe, 49% said that they are not safe, and 4% had no opinion. Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the proportion of all adults who say that nuclear plants are safe. Based on the result, can we conclude that fewer than half of all adults say that nuclear plants are safe?

Control Charts for p. In Exercises 5–12, use the given process data to construct a control chart for p. In each case, use the three out-of-control criteria listed near the beginning of this section and determine whether the process is within statistical control. If it is not, identify which of the three out-of-control criteria apply.

Li-ion Batteries Rechargeable lithium ion batteries are used for mobile computing devices and portable power systems. Consider batteries manufactured to provide a capacity of 2200 mAh (milliampere hour) with a minimum of 2150 mAh. Batteries not meeting those specifications are defects. Listed below are numbers of defects in batches of 300 randomly selected batteries in each of 12 consecutive days of production. What action should be taken?

4 3 5 8 12 7 11 9 9 7 6 19

Control Charts for p. In Exercises 5–12, use the given process data to construct a control chart for p. In each case, use the three out-of-control criteria listed near the beginning of this section and determine whether the process is within statistical control. If it is not, identify which of the three out-of-control criteria apply.

Car Batteries Defective car batteries are a nuisance because they can strand and inconvenience drivers, and drivers could be put in danger. A car battery is considered to be defective if it fails before its warranty expires. Defects are identified when the batteries are returned under the warranty program. The Powerco Battery corporation manufactures car batteries in batches of 250, and the numbers of defects are listed below for each of 12 consecutive batches. Does the manufacturing process require correction?

3 4 2 5 3 6 8 9 12 14 17 20

Confidence Interval Assume that we want to use the sample data in Exercise 1 for constructing a confidence interval to be used for testing the given claim.

c. If the resulting confidence interval is -5.8 admissions <ud < -0.9 admissions, what do you conclude?

Controversial Song The song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” generated much controversy because of its lyrics and tone. CBS New York conducted a survey by asking viewers to use the Internet to respond to a question asking whether that song was really too offensive to play. Among 1043 Internet users who chose to respond, 986 said that the song was not too offensive, and 57 of the respondents said that the song was too offensive.

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c. What is wrong with this survey? Based on this survey, what do we really know about the population?

Critical Thinking. In Exercises 17–28, use the data and confidence level to construct a confidence interval estimate of p, then address the given question.

Measured Results vs. Reported Results The same study cited in the preceding exercise produced these results after six months for the 198 patients given sustained care: 25.8% were no longer smoking, and these results were biochemically confirmed, but 40.9% of these patients reported that they were no longer smoking. Construct the two 95% confidence intervals. Compare the results. What do you conclude?

Heights of Presidents Refer to Data Set 22 “Presidents” in Appendix B. Treat the data as a sample and find the proportion of presidents who were taller than their opponents. Use that result to construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the population percentage. Based on the result, does it appear that greater height is an advantage for presidential candidates? Why or why not?

Wiggle Your Ears Find the sample size needed to estimate the percentage of adults who can wiggle their ears. Use a margin of error of 3 percentage points and use a confidence level of 99%.

b. Assume that 22% of adults can wiggle their ears (based on data from Soul Publishing).