Chapter 9.2, Problem 13BSC

In Exercises 5–20, assume that the two samples are independent simple random samples selected from normally distributed populations, and do not assume that the population standard deviations are equal. (Note: Answers in Appendix D include technology answers based on Formula 9-1 along with “Table” answers based on Table A-3 with df equal to the smaller of n₁ − 1 and n₂ − 1.)

13. Are Male Professors and Female Professors Rated Differently?

a. Use a 0.05 significance level to test the claim that two samples of course evaluation scores are from populations with the same mean. Use these summary statistics: Female professors: n = 40, $\bar{x}$ ⁼ 3.79, s = 0.51; male professors: n = 53, $\bar{x}$ = 4.01, s = 0.53. (Using the raw data in Data Set 17 “Course Evaluations” will yield different results.)

b. Using the summary statistics given in part (a), construct a 95% confidence interval estimate of the difference between the mean course evaluation score for female professors and male professors.

c. Example 1 used similar sample data with samples of size 12 and 15, and Example 1 led to the conclusion that there is not sufficient evidence to warrant rejection of the null hypothesis. Do the larger samples in this exercise affect the results much?