Information about hand posture and forces generated by the fingers during manipulation of various daily objects is needed for designing high-tech hand prosthetic devices. The article "Grip Posture and Forces During Holding Cylindrical Objects with Circular Grips" (Ergonomics, 1996: 1163-1176) reported that for a sample of 11 females, the sample mean four-finger pinch strength (N) was 98.1 and the sample standard deviation was 14.2. For a sample of 15 males, the sample mean and sample standard deviation were 129.2 and 39.1, respectively.
a. A test carried out to see whether true average strengths for the two genders were different resulted in t = 2.51 and P-value = .019. Does the appropriate test procedure described in this chapter yield this value of t and the stated P-value?
b. Is there substantial evidence for concluding that true average strength for males exceeds that for females by more than 25 N? State and test the relevant hypotheses.