Do you think that a football filled with helium will travel farther than a football filled with

Question:

Do you think that a football filled with helium will travel farther than a football filled with air?

Two researchers at the Ohio State University investigated this question by performing an experiment in which 39 people each kicked a helium-filled football and an air-filled football. Half were assigned to kick the air-filled football first and then the helium-filled ball, whereas the other half kicked the helium-filled ball first followed by the air-filled ball. Distance (in yards) was measured for each kick.

In this activity, you will use the Internet to obtain the data from this experiment and then carry out a hypothesis test to determine whether the mean distance is greater for helium-filled footballs than for air-filled footballs.

1. Do you think that helium-filled balls will tend to travel farther than air-filled balls when kicked? Before looking at the data, write a few sentences indicating what you think the outcome of this experiment was and describing the reasoning that supports your prediction.

2. The data from this experiment can be found in the Data and Story Library at the following web site: http://lib.stat.cme.edu/DASL/Datafiles/heliumfootball.html Go to this web site and print out the data for the 39 trials.

3. There are two samples in this data set. One consists of distances traveled for the 39 kicks of the air-filled football, and the other consists of the 39 distances for the helium filled football. Are these samples independent or paired? Explain.

4. Carry out an appropriate hypothesis test to determine whether there is convincing evidence that the mean distance traveled is greater for a helium-filled football than for an air-filled football.

5. Is the conclusion in the test of Step 4 consistent with your initial prediction of the outcome of this experiment? Explain.

6. Write a paragraph for the sports section of your school newspaper describing this experiment and the conclusions that can be drawn from it.