Is the claim of 18mg of nicotine per cigarette accurate?

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The discussion centers on testing the claim that the average nicotine content in cigarettes is no more than 18mg. A sample of 12 cigarettes showed a mean of 19.1mg, leading to a t-test calculation that initially suggested rejecting the null hypothesis. However, there was confusion regarding the correct formulation of the null hypothesis and the calculation of the t statistic, particularly the standard deviation used. It was clarified that the null hypothesis should be set to test if the mean is greater than 18mg, and the standard deviation for the sample mean should be adjusted accordingly. The conclusion indicates that the initial calculations may have been incorrect, leading to a misunderstanding of the hypothesis testing outcome.
tzx9633

Homework Statement


An advertisement for a certain brand of cigarettes claimed that on average there's no more than 18mg of nicotine per cigarettes . A test of 12 cigarettes gave a sample mean of 19.1 . Assuming varience is 4 , test the claim with a significance level of α = 0.05

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution



My ans is
Ho = µ_0 = 18
H1 = µ_0 <18


Since n < 30 , and standard deviation of population unknown , so , i use t-distribution

t test = (19.1-18) / ( 2 /sqrt(2) ) = 1.905

t α = 0.05 , v =11 = 1.796

Since t test > t critical , so i reject the Ho , but accroding to the ans , i should not reject the Ho ,

Is my ans wrong ?
 
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tzx9633 said:

Homework Statement


An advertisement for a certain brand of cigarettes claimed that on average there's no more than 18mg of nicotine per cigarettes . A test of 12 cigarettes gave a sample mean of 19.1 . Assuming varience is 4 , test the claim with a significance level of α = 0.05

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution



My ans is
Ho = µ_0 = 18
H1 = µ_0 <18


Since n < 30 , and standard deviation of population unknown , so , i use t-distribution

t test = (19.1-18) / ( 2 /sqrt(2) ) = 1.905

t α = 0.05 , v =11 = 1.796

Since t test > t critical , so i reject the Ho , but accroding to the ans , i should not reject the Ho ,

Is my ans wrong ?
Your null hypothesis should be ##H_0: \mu_0 \le 18##
In addition, your calculation of the t statistic looks wrong to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student%27s_t-test said:
In testing the null hypothesis that the population mean is equal to a specified value μ0, one uses the statistic

1063f91f450e9fd0094a38f1856eb11bd201d232

where
9fa4039bbc2a0048c3a3c02e5fd24390cab0dc97
is the sample mean, s is the sample standard deviation of the sample and n is the sample size.
 
tzx9633 said:

Homework Statement


An advertisement for a certain brand of cigarettes claimed that on average there's no more than 18mg of nicotine per cigarettes . A test of 12 cigarettes gave a sample mean of 19.1 . Assuming varience is 4 , test the claim with a significance level of α = 0.05

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution



My ans is
Ho = µ_0 = 18
H1 = µ_0 <18


Since n < 30 , and standard deviation of population unknown , so , i use t-distribution

t test = (19.1-18) / ( 2 /sqrt(2) ) = 1.905

t α = 0.05 , v =11 = 1.796

Since t test > t critical , so i reject the Ho , but accroding to the ans , i should not reject the Ho ,

Is my ans wrong ?

You want to distinguish between values of ##\mu## that are ##\leq 18## and ##> 18##, so you should use ##H_0: \mu= 18## vs. ##H_1: \mu > 18##.

Are you sure you should use ##\sigma = 2?## If this refers to the sample variance, it is the estimated variance of ##X##, not of ##\bar{X}_{12}## = sample mean. The appropriate standard deviation for ##\bar{X}_{12}## is ##\sigma/\sqrt{12} = 2/\sqrt{12}.## That would give an even larger value of ##t## than the one you used, making ##H_0## even more strongly rejected than you indicate. This seems to be another instance of a wrong answer in the book (or possibly, the book having a weird, non-standard way of doing things).
 
Last edited:
Question: A clock's minute hand has length 4 and its hour hand has length 3. What is the distance between the tips at the moment when it is increasing most rapidly?(Putnam Exam Question) Answer: Making assumption that both the hands moves at constant angular velocities, the answer is ## \sqrt{7} .## But don't you think this assumption is somewhat doubtful and wrong?

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