Statistics & Probability

Hypothesis Testing
for the Mean
(Small Samples)
 CRITICAL VALUES IN A t-DISTRIBUTION

Finding Critical Values in a t-Distribution

1. Identify the level of significance .
2. Identify the degrees of freedom d.f. = n – 1.
3. Find the critical value(s) using the t-table in the row with
n – 1 degrees of freedom. If the hypothesis test is
a. left-tailed, use “One Tail,  ” column with a negative
sign,
b. right-tailed, use “One Tail,  ” column with a positive
sign,
c. two-tailed, use “Two Tails,  ” column with a negative
and a positive sign.
 FINDING CRITICAL VALUES FOR t

Example:
Find the critical value t0 for a right-tailed test given  =
0.01 and n = 24.

The degrees of freedom are d.f. = n – 1 = 24 – 1 = 23.

To find the critical value, use the table with d.f. = 23 and
0.01 in the “One Tail,  “ column. Because the test is a
right-tail test, the critical value is positive.
t0 = 2.500
 FINDING CRITICAL VALUES FOR t

Example:
Find the critical values t0 and t0 for a two-tailed test
given  = 0.10 and n = 12.
The degrees of freedom are d.f. = n – 1 = 12 – 1 = 11.
To find the critical value, use the table with d.f. = 11 and
0.10 in the “Two Tail,  “ column. Because the test is a
two-tail test, one critical value is negative and one is
positive.
t0 =  1.796 and t0 = 1.796
 t-TEST FOR A MEAN μ
(n<30, σ unknown)
The t-test for the mean is a statistical test for a population
mean. The t-test can be used when the population is
normal or nearly normal,  is unknown, and n < 30.

The test statistic is the sample mean x and the

standardized test statistic is t.

t x μ
s n
The degrees of freedom are d.f. = n – 1 .
 t-TEST FOR A MEAN μ
(n<30, σ unknown)
Using the t-Test for a Mean μ (Small Sample)
In Words In Symbols
1. State the claim mathematically State H0 and Ha.
and verbally. Identify the null and
alternative hypotheses.
2. Specify the level of significance. Identify .
3. Identify the degrees of freedom d.f. = n – 1.
and sketch the sampling
distribution.
4. Determine any critical values. Use Table
5. Determine any rejection region(s).
 t-TEST FOR A MEAN μ
(n<30, σ unknown)
Using the t-Test for a Mean μ (Small Sample)
In Words In Symbols
6. Find the standardized test t x μ
statistic. s
n

7. Make a decision to reject or fail If t is in the rejection

to reject the null hypothesis.
8. Interpret the decision in the
context of the original claim.
region, reject H0.
Otherwise, fail to
reject H0.
 TESTING μ USING CRITICAL VALUES

Example:
A local telephone company claims that the average length
of a phone call is 8 minutes. In a random sample of 18
phone calls, the sample mean was 7.8 minutes and the
standard deviation was 0.5 minutes. Is there enough
evidence to support this claim at  = 0.05?
H0:  = 8 (Claim) Ha:   8
The level of significance is  = 0.05.
The test is a two-tailed test.
Degrees of freedom are d.f. = 18 – 1 = 17.
The critical values are t0 = 2.110 and t0 = 2.110
 TESTING μ USING CRITICAL VALUES

H0:  = 8 (Claim) Ha:   8

The standardized test statistic is
The test statistic falls in the
t  x  μ  7.8  8 nonrejection region, so H0 is
s n 0.5 18 not rejected.
 1.70. z
z0 = 2.110 0 z0 = 2.110

At the 5% level of significance, there is not enough evidence to

reject the claim that the average length of a phone call is 8
minutes.
 TESTING μ USING CRITICAL VALUES

EXERCISE:

An industrial company claims that the mean pH level of

the water in a nearby river is 6.8. You randomly select
19 water samples and measure their pH. The mean and
standard deviation are 6.7 and 0.24, respectively. Is
there enough evidence to reject the company’s claim
at a significance level of 0.05? Assume the population
is normally distributed.
 TESTING μ USING P-VALUES

Example:
A manufacturer claims that its rechargeable batteries have
an average life greater than 1,000 charges. A random
sample of 10 batteries has a mean life of 1002 charges and
a standard deviation of 14. Is there enough evidence to
support this claim at  = 0.01?
H0:   1000 Ha:  > 1000 (Claim)
The level of significance is  = 0.01.
The degrees of freedom are d.f. = n – 1 = 10 – 1 = 9.
The standardized test statistic is
t  x  μ  1002  1000
s n 14 10
 0.45
 TESTING μ USING P-VALUES

H0:   1000 Ha:  > 1000 (Claim)

t  0.45

Using the d.f. = 9 row from table , you can

determine that P is greater than  = 0.25 and is
therefore also greater than the 0.01 significance
0 0.45 z level. H0 would fail to be rejected.

At the 1% level of significance, there is not enough

evidence to support the claim that the rechargeable
battery has an average life of at least 1000 charges.
 TESTING μ USING P-VALUES

EXERCISE:

The Internal Revenue Service claims that the mean

wait time for callers during a recent tax filing season
was at most 7 minutes. A random sample of 11 callers
has a mean wait time of 8.7 minutes and a standard
deviation of 2.7 minutes. Is there enough evidence to
reject the claim at a significance level of 0.10?