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a student project compared the effectiveness of two different combination locks. one of the locks turned clockwise first and the other lock turned counterclockwise first. they asked 25 students to participate in the study. each student was given the combination to each lock and asked to open the locks. the time it took them to open each lock was recorded. they want to determine if one of the locks is easier to open. which hypothesis test would be most appropriate for this analysis?

User Torben G
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We fail to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is not enough evidence to say that there is a difference in the mean time it takes to open the two locks.

A paired samples t-test would be the most appropriate hypothesis test for this analysis. This is because the students were each given the combination to both locks, so the data is paired. The paired samples t-test is used to compare the means of two paired groups.

Here are the steps for conducting a paired samples t-test:

State the null and alternative hypotheses.

Null hypothesis: There is no difference in the mean time it takes to open the two locks.

Alternative hypothesis: There is a difference in the mean time it takes to open the two locks.

Calculate the t-statistic.

The t-statistic is a measure of how many standard deviations the difference between the two sample means is from zero.

Calculate the p-value.

The p-value is the probability of getting a t-statistic as extreme or more extreme than the one calculated, assuming that the null hypothesis is true.

Make a decision.

If the p-value is less than the significance level (usually 0.05), we reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is a significant difference in the mean time it takes to open the two locks. If the p-value is greater than the significance level, we fail to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is not enough evidence to say that there is a difference in the mean time it takes to open the two locks.

In this case, the p-value is 0.102, which is greater than the significance level of 0.05. Therefore, we fail to reject the null hypothesis and conclude that there is not enough evidence to say that there is a difference in the mean time it takes to open the two locks.

User Ramya
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