An article in American Demographics investigated consumer habits at the mall. We tend to spend the most money shopping on the weekends, and in particular, on Sundays from 4 to 6 P.M. Wednesday morning shoppers spend the least! Suppose that a random sample of 20 weekend shoppers and a random sample of 20 weekday shoppers were selected, and the amount spent per trip to the mall was recorded.
Weekends Weekdays
n1=20 n2=20
n1=$78 n2=$67
n =$22 n2=$20
a. Is it reasonable to assume that the two population variances are equal? Use the F-test to test this hypothesis with α=.05.
b. Based on the results of part a, use the appropriate test to determine whether there is a difference in the average amount spent per trip on weekends versus weekdays. Use α=.05.