A local golf pro wanted to compare two styles of golf club. One golf club had a graphite shaft and the other had the latest style of steel shaft. It is a common belief that graphite shafts allow a player to hit the ball farther, but the manufacturer of the new steel shaft said the ball travels just as far with its new technology. To test this belief, the pro recruited 10 golfers from the driving range. Each player was asked to hit one ball with the graphite-shafted club and one ball with the new steel-shafted club. The distance that the ball traveled was determined using a range finder. A coin flip was used to determine whether the player hit with the graphite club or the steel club first. Results indicated that the distance the ball was hit with the graphite club was no different than the distance when using the steel club.
(a) What type of experimental design is this?
(b) What is the response variable in this study?
(c) What is the factor that is set to predetermined levels? What is the treatment?
(d) Identify the experimental units.
(e) Why did the golf pro use a coin flip to determine whether the golfer should hit with the graphite first or the steel first?
(f ) Draw a diagram similar to Figure 7 or 8 to illustrate the design.