The Dean of Mechanical Engineering....

Question

The Dean of Mechanical Engineering is currently concerned with the amount of noise in the campus building, and plans on moving to the lower grounds. He claims that if all the classes will transfer, the noise level will change. Ten sample classes have been transferred, and the dean tried to compare the noise level before and after the transfer. Prior to the movement, the noise levels (in decibels) were recorded as follows: 73.52, 81.49, 83.05, 85.12, 81.74, 89.25, 92.77, 83.28, 90.92, and 78.15. After the movement, the noise levels (in decibels) were as follows: 70.88, 80.53, 76.24, 83.67, 89.62, 88.47, 89.02, 85.18, 89.44, and 84.16. At 1% significance level, is there sufficient evidence to support the claim?

Answer 1

Hi Faith L.

I think I would transfer the dean instead. You may calculate whether the averages of these two sets of data are significantly different, and was the noise decreasing, i.e. at what level of significance -- but I think you'd need to know how many classes there are in total? And also, the question is screwy-- there's no guarantee that all classes generate randomly identical average noise, which surely an educator should be aware of?

-- Cheers, --Mr. d.