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In February 2012, the mean cost of an airline round-trip with a discount fare wa

ID: 3128562 • Letter: I

Question

In February 2012, the mean cost of an airline round-trip with a discount fare was $258. A random sample of 15 round-trip discount fares during the month of March provided the following data: 310 260 265 255 300 310 230 250 265 280 290 240 285 250 260

a. Do these data indicate that the mean round-trip discount fare has increased in March? Establish the appropriate null and alternative hypotheses to test this assumption. b. What conclusion should be drawn? Use a level of significance of 0.05. Make sure to state the decision rule.

Explanation / Answer

a)

Formulating the null and alternative hypotheses,              
              
Ho:   u   <=   258  
Ha:    u   >   258   [ANSWER]

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b)
              
As we can see, this is a    right   tailed test.      
              
Thus, getting the critical t,              
df = n - 1 =    14          
tcrit =    +   1.761310136      

Hence, we reject Ho when t > 1.761.
              
Getting the test statistic, as              
              
X = sample mean =    270          
uo = hypothesized mean =    258          
n = sample size =    15          
s = standard deviation =    24.78478796          
              
Thus, t = (X - uo) * sqrt(n) / s =    1.87517441          
              
              
As t > 1.761, we   REJECT THE NULL HYPOTHESIS.  

Hence, there is significant evidence that the mean round-trip discount fare has increased in March at 0.05 level. [CONCLUSION]