Question

In performing a hypothesis test where the null hypothesis is that the population mean is 23 against the alternative hypothesis that the population mean is not equal to 23, a random sample of 17 items is selected. The sample mean is 24.6 and the sample standard deviation is 3.3. It can be assumed that the population is normally distributed. The degrees of freedom associated with this are _______.

a) 16
b) 17
c) 18
d) 19

Answer 1

The degrees of freedom associated with this hypothesis test are 16. Therefore, the correct answer is (a) 16.

Step-by-step explanation:

This is a hypothesis test for a population mean. Given that the null hypothesis is that the population mean is 23 and the alternative hypothesis is that the population mean is not equal to 23, we can use a t-distribution. The degrees of freedom in this case can be calculated using the formula n - 1, where n is the sample size. Therefore, the degrees of freedom associated with this test are 17 - 1 = 16. Therefore, the correct answer is (a) 16.