Chapter 7.3, Problem 4CS

Human Body Temperature: What’s Normal?

In an article in the Journal of Statistics Education (vol. 4. no. 2), Allen Shoemaker describes a study that was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).* It is generally accepted that the mean body temperature of an adult human is 98.6°F. In his article, Shoemaker uses the data from the JAMA article to test this hypothesis. Here is a summary of his test.

Claim: The body temperature of adults is 98.6°F.

$\begin{array}{l}{H}_0:\mu =98.6°\text{F}\text{(Claim)}\\ H_a:\mu \ne 98.6°\text{F}\end{array}$

Sample Size: n = 130

Population: Adult human temperatures (Fahrenheit)

Distribution: Approximately normal

Test Statistics: $\bar{x}=98.25$, s = 0.73

* Data for the JAMA article were collected from healthy men and women, ages 18 to 40, at the University of Maryland Center for Vaccine Development, Baltimore.

4. Test the hypothesis that the mean temperature of women is 98.6°F. What can you conclude at a level of significance of α = 0.01?