During the 2003 season, Major League Baseball took steps to speed up the play of base-ball games in order to maintain fan interest (CNN Headline News, September 30, 2003). The following results come from a sample of 60 games played during the summer of 2002 and a sample of 50 games played during the summer of 2003. The sample mean shows the mean duration of the games included in each sample.
a. A research hypothesis was that the steps taken during the 2003 season would reduce the population mean duration of baseball games. Formulate the null and alternative hypotheses.
H0: μ1 -μ2
Ha: μ1 -μ2
b.What is the point estimate of the reduction in the mean duration of games during the 2003 season?
minutes
c.Historical data indicate a population standard deviation of 12 minutes is a reasonable assumption for both years. Conduct the hypothesis test and report the p-value at a .05 level of significance
Test statistic =
p-value =
What is your conclusion?
d.Provide a 95% confidence interval estimate of the reduction in the mean duration of games during the 2003 season.
m1 - m2
e.What was the percentage reduction in the mean time of baseball games during the 2003 season? Should management be pleased with the results of the statistical analysis? Should the length of baseball games continue to be an issue in future years? Explain.
