Question:
Farm real estate values in rural America fluctuate substantially from state to state and county to county, thus making it difficult for buyers purchasing land or landowners to know precisely what the property is actually worth. For example, the average value of ranchland in Missouri was $548 per acre, whereas the same average in three nearby states (Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma) was more than $200 less. This discrepancy could be caused by an exaggerated variability in the value of ranchland acreage in the state of Missouri. Assume that the combined four-state region yields a standard deviation of $85 per acre. Suppose a sample was taken of 31 landowners in Missouri who recently sold their property and a sample standard deviation of $125 per acre resulted. Is the variability in ranchland value in Missouri, at the 0.05 level of significance, greater than the variability for the region as a whole? Using the MINITAB output below, complete the hypothesis test.
Transcribed Image Text:
Null hypothesis Alternative hypothesis Sigma 85 N StDev Variance Chi-Square DF P-Value 31 125 15625 Sigma 85 64.88 30 0.000