The variability of oil prices per barrel has been very stable for the past 26 weeks.  You would like to see if the variability of gas prices in San Diego has changed.  The standard deviation of gas prices during periods of such stability has been 30 cents and it was thought that these prices were relatively normally distributed.  You would like to see if they have changed so you randomly select 26 gas prices from this time period and get a sample standard deviation is 37.5 cents.  At the level of significance of .05 see if gas prices variability has changed.  Do the 5 step process to conduct a hypothesis test. Also at what critical value would you reject the null hypothesis?

MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications
6th Edition
ISBN:9781119256830
Author:Amos Gilat
Publisher:Amos Gilat
Chapter1: Starting With Matlab
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 1P
icon
Related questions
Question

The variability of oil prices per barrel has been very stable for the past 26 weeks.  You would like to see if the variability of gas prices in San Diego has changed.  The standard deviation of gas prices during periods of such stability has been 30 cents and it was thought that these prices were relatively normally distributed.  You would like to see if they have changed so you randomly select 26 gas prices from this time period and get a sample standard deviation is 37.5 cents.  At the level of significance of .05 see if gas prices variability has changed. 

Do the 5 step process to conduct a hypothesis test.


Also at what critical value would you reject the null hypothesis?

 

Expert Solution
Step 1

State the hypotheses.

Statistics homework question answer, step 1, image 1

That is, there is no evidence that the gas prices variability has changed.

Statistics homework question answer, step 1, image 2

That is, there is evidence that the gas prices variability has changed.

 

 

 

Step 2

Determine the level of significance.

Significance level:

 In order to decide how small the p-value should be for providing convincing evidence against the null hypothesis, a value should be used. The value that is used as the rule or the criterion for deciding how small the p-value should be is called as level of significance.

Statistics homework question answer, step 2, image 1

Step 3

Obtain the value of the test statistic.

The value of the test statistic is obtained below:

Statistics homework question answer, step 3, image 1

The required value is,

Statistics homework question answer, step 3, image 2

Thus, the value of the test statistic is 39.06.

 

steps

Step by step

Solved in 6 steps with 7 images

Blurred answer
Knowledge Booster
Hypothesis Tests and Confidence Intervals for Equality of Variances
Learn more about
Need a deep-dive on the concept behind this application? Look no further. Learn more about this topic, statistics and related others by exploring similar questions and additional content below.
Similar questions
Recommended textbooks for you
MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications
MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications
Statistics
ISBN:
9781119256830
Author:
Amos Gilat
Publisher:
John Wiley & Sons Inc
Probability and Statistics for Engineering and th…
Probability and Statistics for Engineering and th…
Statistics
ISBN:
9781305251809
Author:
Jay L. Devore
Publisher:
Cengage Learning
Statistics for The Behavioral Sciences (MindTap C…
Statistics for The Behavioral Sciences (MindTap C…
Statistics
ISBN:
9781305504912
Author:
Frederick J Gravetter, Larry B. Wallnau
Publisher:
Cengage Learning
Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World (7th E…
Elementary Statistics: Picturing the World (7th E…
Statistics
ISBN:
9780134683416
Author:
Ron Larson, Betsy Farber
Publisher:
PEARSON
The Basic Practice of Statistics
The Basic Practice of Statistics
Statistics
ISBN:
9781319042578
Author:
David S. Moore, William I. Notz, Michael A. Fligner
Publisher:
W. H. Freeman
Introduction to the Practice of Statistics
Introduction to the Practice of Statistics
Statistics
ISBN:
9781319013387
Author:
David S. Moore, George P. McCabe, Bruce A. Craig
Publisher:
W. H. Freeman