Question: Given x 1 and x 2 distributions that are normal or approximately normal with unknown 1 and 2 , the value of t corresponding to

Givenx1andx2distributions that are normal or approximately normal with unknown1and2, the value oftcorresponding tox1x2has a distribution that is approximated by a Student'stdistribution. We use the convention that the degrees of freedom is approximately the smaller ofn11andn21.However, a more accurate estimate for the appropriate degrees of freedom is given by Satterthwaite's formula:d.f.s12

n1

+s22

n2

2

1

n11

s12

n1

2+1

n21

s22

n2

2

wheres1,s2,n1, andn2are the respective sample standard deviations and sample sizes of independent random samples from thex1andx2distributions. This is the approximation used by most statistical software. When bothn1andn2are 5 or larger, it is quite accurate. The degrees of freedom computed from this formula are either truncated or not rounded.

(a) We tested whether the population average crime rate2in the Rocky Mountain region is higher than that in New England,1. The data weren1=15,x13.51,s10.91,n2=13,x23.87, ands21.04. Use Satterthwaite's formula to compute the degrees of freedom for the Student'stdistribution. (Round your answer to two decimal places.)

d.f.=

(b) Previously, you followed the convention that degrees of freedomd.f.=smallerofn11andn21.Compare this value ofd.f.with that found with Satterthwaite's formula.

The previous method leads to ad.f.that is always greater than or equal to that computed by Satterthwaite's formula.

The previous method leads to ad.f.that could be less than or greater than that computed by Satterthwaite's formula.

The previous method leads to ad.f.that is always equal to that computed by Satterthwaite's formula.

The previous method leads to ad.f.that is always less than or equal to that computed by Satterthwaite's formula.

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