Question

A footwear company wants to test the effectiveness of its new insoles designed to prevent shin splints resulting from running. They hire a group of physical trainers and a statistician, who recruits 100100100 healthy adults between the ages of 181818 and 242424 to participate in a study.

The statistician randomly assigns 505050 of the adults to follow a weekly running schedule with the new insoles and the other 505050 to the same running schedule with the existing insoles the company already sells. After 101010 weeks, the statistician records the number of runners from each group that have developed shin splints.

What is the primary purpose of having a group of 505050 runners use the existing insoles?

Answer 1

The primary purpose of having a group of 50 runners use the existing insoles is to establish a control group for comparing the effectiveness of the new insoles in preventing shin splints.

Step-by-step explanation:

The primary purpose of having a group of 50 runners use the existing insoles is to serve as a control group in the study. This allows the researchers to compare the effectiveness of the new insoles against the existing insoles under the same conditions. By doing so, they can accurately determine if the new insoles are more effective at preventing shin splints resulting from running. The control group is essential for establishing a baseline and isolating the variable being tested, which in this case, is the type of insoles.