Facebook Frenzy

By: Morgan and Lauren

10 20 0 0 15 25 45 40 20 20 5 10 20 0 30

30 10 60 20 10 15 5 10 0 40 30 10 20 25 35

When surveying our 30 fellow FHS attendants, we were able to find some
interesting information related to Facebook and the amount of times our
classmates used the popular app. We walked around and took the first 30
people that passed us in the hallway, these individuals being from all four
grades. We did not survey any adults in our project.
The 𝜇 for our data was given to us in the description, and it was 20. This
number signifies the average of the population. From there, we performed
a random survey of students around the school. We were able to find our
𝑋by typing all of the data values into L1 and running a 1 variable statistic.
The 𝑋 for our data, or the average of our sample, is 19.3. In other words, our
data tells us that the average student at FHS spends approximately 19.3
minutes on Facebook per day. By running a 1 variable statistic, we were
also able to find the sample standard deviation. The sample standard
deviation is 14.7. In other words, the spread of the data is 14.7 minutes.
Since we did not survey the entire population, we do now know 𝜎 . Our null
hypothesis was determined by using the 𝜇that was provided to us based
on the article. The null hypothesis, or H0 , is 𝜇= 20. Because we found our
sample mean to be 19.7, we were able to conclude that we believed people
spend less less than 20 minutes a day on Facebook. Because of that, we
concluded that our alternate hypothesis, or H1 is 𝜇 < 20. Based on this, we
concluded that our data would be a one tail area, extending to the left,
since the we predicted the number to be smaller.
The level of significance we used in our project regarding the
average time spent on facebookis .01. This number will determine whether
we reject our null hypothesis or whether we fail to reject. In order to reject
the null hypothesis the P- value has to be less than the chosen level of
significance. In our project we calculated the P- value to be greater than
.25. Therefore we cannot reject the null hypothesis that 𝜇=20 because .20 is
not smaller than .01.
In our project 𝜎 was not given to us, which is the major deciding
factor when deciding whether to use standard normal (z) distribution and
students (t) distribution. Because 𝜎 was not given we used the students (t)
distribution. The students (t) distribution, along with the type of test (one
or two- tailed) helps determine the p- value.
 The sample size of our data is 30. This is the amount of people we
surveyed to get enough data to compute a more accurate average. The
degrees of freedom is used to find the p-value and is found by taking the
sample size, which is n, and subtracting it by 1. The df is 29 in our project.
In order to compute the sample test statistic you have to know 𝑋, 𝜇, s, and
n. To calculate the sample test statistic you take 𝑋- 𝜇 and divide that by s/ √n .
The sample test statistic helps determine the p-value. In our project we took 19.3-20/14.7/√30.
This equals -.26 but it is symmetrical so it also is positive .26.
To find the p value, we used table 4. We found our degrees of
freedom by taking our sample size minus 1. Our degrees of freedom
equaled 29. We located that on the left side of the table, and then
searched that row to find our T value, or a value close to t. Our t value, .26,
was not an amount on the graph. In fact, it was much smaller since the
first value on the table is .683. So, we concluded that the p value was less
than the smallest number in the row. The number farthest to the left of our
table, under a one-tail area, is .250. The more farther you move to the
right, the larger the one-tail area numbers get. Since our t value, .26, did
not even make it on chart, we were able to conclude that the p value is
larger than .250, or 25%.
For our project, we chose to use the level of significance of .01. As
mentioned, our p value is larger than .250. Our level of significance, .01, is
much smaller than our p value, .250. Because of this, we cannot reject H0
because our p value is greater than our level of significance. If our p value
would have been smaller than our level of significance, we would have
been able to reject the null hypothesis, and accept our alternate
hypothesis. Commented [1]: Which means we can't reject the idea
that people spend 20 minutes on facebook per day.
Nice work with your calculations & explanations. 49/50