A hat company claims that the mean hat size for a male is at least 7.25. A random sample of 12 hat sizes has a mean of 7.15. At α=0.01, can you reject the company’s claim? Assume the population is normally distributed and the population standard deviation is 0.27.

Dive Duration An oceanographer claims that the mean dive duration of a North Atlantic right whale is 11.5 minutes. A random sample of 34 dive durations has a mean of 12.2 minutes and a standard deviation of 2.2 minutes. Is there enough evidence to reject the claim at α=0.10?

Faculty Classroom Hours The dean of a university estimates that the mean number of classroom hours per week for full-time faculty is 11.0. As a member of the student council, you want to test this claim. A random sample of the number of classroom hours for eight full-time faculty for one week is shown in the table at the left. At α=0.01, can you reject the dean’s claim?

Deciding on a Distribution In Exercises 31 and 32, decide whether you should use the standard normal sampling distribution or a t-sampling distribution to perform the hypothesis test. Justify your decision. Then use the distribution to test the claim. Write a short paragraph about the results of the test and what you can conclude about the claim.

Tuition and Fees An education publication claims that the mean in-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions by state is more than $10,500 per year. A random sample of 30 states has a mean in-state tuition and fees at public four-year institutions of $10,931 per year. Assume the population standard deviation is $2380. At α=0.01, test the publication’s claim.

[APPLET] The annual earnings (in dollars) for 30 randomly selected locksmiths are shown below. Assume the population is normally distributed. (Adapted from Salary.com)

48,69446,85642,91261,67271,11254,861

69,45471,84159,75169,61254,28452,166

66,36048,16465,27235,25061,12765,397

58,92558,91659,01753,07045,19969,941

69,49257,08553,82952,69268,29853,792

A researcher claims that the mean annual earnings for locksmiths is $55,000. At α=0.05, can you reject the researcher’s claim? Interpret the decision in the context of the original claim.

A travel analyst claims the mean daily base price for renting a full-size or less expensive vehicle in Vancouver, British Columbia, is more than $86. You want to test this claim. In a random sample of 40 full-size or less expensive vehicles available to rent in Vancouver, British Columbia, the mean daily base price is $93.23. Assume the population standard deviation is $28.90. At α=0.10, do you have enough evidence to support the analyst’s claim?

A government agency reports that the mean amount of earnings for full-time workers ages 18 to 24 with a bachelor’s degree in a recent year is $52,133. In a random sample of 15 full-time workers ages 18 to 24 with a bachelor’s degree, the mean amount of earnings is $48,400 and the standard deviation is $6679. At α=0.05, is there enough evidence to reject the claim? Assume the population is normally distributed.

[APPLET] A weight loss program claims that program participants have a mean weight loss of at least 10.5 pounds after 1 month. The weight losses after 1 month (in pounds) of a random sample of 40 program participants are listed below. At α=0.01, is there enough evidence to reject the program’s claim?

In Exercises 7–10, (d) explain how you should interpret a decision that rejects the null hypothesis.

An energy bar maker claims that the mean number of grams of carbohydrates in one bar is less than 25.