Final answer:
To determine if there was a significant increase in RMR of the women runners over the sedentary women, we need to conduct a hypothesis test.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine if there was a significant increase in RMR of the women runners over the sedentary women, we need to conduct a hypothesis test.
Step 1: Define the null hypothesis (H₀) and the alternative hypothesis (H₁).
H₀: There is no significant difference in RMR between the women runners and sedentary women.
H₁: There is a significant increase in RMR of the women runners over the sedentary women.
Step 2: Set the significance level (a) to 0.05.
Step 3: Calculate the test statistic.
We can use a two-sample t-test since we have two independent samples and want to compare their means.
The test statistic formula is:
t = (mean1 - mean2) / sqrt((s1^2 / n1) + (s2^2 / n2))
where mean1 is the mean RMR of the women runners, mean2 is the mean RMR of the sedentary women, s1 is the standard deviation of the women runners, s2 is the standard deviation of the sedentary women, n1 is the sample size of the women runners, and n2 is the sample size of the sedentary women.
Step 4: Determine the critical region in the t-distribution.
In this case, we want to check if the test statistic falls in the critical region corresponding to the significance level of 0.05 in the t-distribution with (n1 + n2 - 2) degrees of freedom.
Step 5: Make a conclusion.
If the test statistic falls in the critical region, we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is a significant increase in RMR of the women runners over the sedentary women. Otherwise, if the test statistic does not fall in the critical region, we fail to reject the null hypothesis and cannot conclude a significant increase in RMR.