Insect flight ability can be measured in a laboratory by attaching the insect to a nearly frictionless rotating arm with a thin wire. The “tethered” insect then flies in circles until exhausted. The nonstop distance flown can easily be calculated from the number of revolutions made by the arm. The following are measurements of this sort made on Culex tarsalis mosquitos of four different ages. The response variable is the average distance flown until exhaustion for forty females of the species (150).
Distance Flown, y
Age, x (weeks) (thousand meters)
1……………………………….12.6
2……………………………….11.6
3………………………………. 6.8
4………………………………. 9.2
Fit a straight line to these data and test that the slope is zero. Use a two-sided alternative and the 0.05 level of significance.