Lesson 21: Hypothesis Testing with Known Standard Deviation

Watch the video Tests of Significance.

1. In the 1970s, statistician Ron Thisted did a statistical analysis of Shakespeare’s vocabulary. Based on his analysis he created a computer program. What could his program tell you about a Shakespearean poem?
2. In analyzing a poem to see whether or not it was authored by Shakespeare, Thisted set up a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis. State those hypotheses in words.
3. What was the approximate distribution of the number of unique words per poem in Shakespeare’s poems?
4. Thisted observed 10 unique words in the newly discovered poem. Was that sufficient evidence to conclude that Shakespeare did not write the poem?
5. Which is better evidence against the null hypothesis, a large p-value or a small p-value?