Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 6 / 100 of 400 #1100 of 2000

Problem 1100

National olympiad, first round
Algebra Difficulty 6.1 Find the answer

Example. A random variable ξ\xi is distributed according to the normal law with unknown mathematical expectation aa and variance σ2\sigma^{2}. There is a sample x1,,x10x_{1}, \ldots, x_{10} of values of ξ\xi. The sample mean is 1.17, and the sample variance is 0.25. Find the confidence intervals for aa and σ2\sigma^{2} at confidence levels pa=0.98p_{a}=0.98 and pσ2=0.96p_{\sigma^{2}}=0.96.

Official solution

Solution. Let's introduce the notation for the sample mean and sample variance:

Mx=x1++x1010 and Dx=(x1Mx)2++(x10Mx)29. M_{x}^{*}=\frac{x_{1}+\ldots+x_{10}}{10} \quad \text { and } \quad D_{x}^{*}=\frac{\left(x_{1}-M_{x}^{*}\right)^{2}+\ldots+\left(x_{10}-M_{x}^{*}\right)^{2}}{9} .

1. The random variable

T=f1(x1,,x10,a)=MxaDx10 T=f_{1}\left(x_{1}, \ldots, x_{10}, a\right)=\frac{M_{x}^{*}-a}{\sqrt{D_{x}^{*}}} \sqrt{10}

is distributed according to the Student's t-distribution with 9 degrees of freedom.

The random variable

χ2=f2(x1,,x10,σ2)=9Dxσ2 \chi^{2}=f_{2}\left(x_{1}, \ldots, x_{10}, \sigma^{2}\right)=\frac{9 D_{x}^{*}}{\sigma^{2}}

is distributed according to the Pearson's chi-squared distribution with 9 degrees of freedom.

2. We find in the t-distribution table or using the RESHEBNIK.VM package the quantiles qa(1)q_{a}^{(1)} and qa(2)q_{a}^{(2)}, such that

P(Tqa(2))=1pa2=10.982=0.01 \mathrm{P}\left(Tq_{a}^{(2)}\right)=\frac{1-p_{a}}{2}=\frac{1-0.98}{2}=0.01

We have qa(2)=t1α(m)=2.821(α=1pa=0.02,m=n1=9)q_{a}^{(2)}=t_{1-\alpha}(m)=2.821\left(\alpha=1-p_{a}=0.02, m=n-1=9\right), qa(1)=qa(2)=2.821q_{a}^{(1)}=-q_{a}^{(2)}=-2.821.

3. The random interval

(MxqaDxn,Mx+qaDxn) \left(M_{x}^{*}-q_{a} \sqrt{\frac{D_{x}^{*}}{n}}, M_{x}^{*}+q_{a} \sqrt{\frac{D_{x}^{*}}{n}}\right)

contains aa with probability pa=0.98p_{a}=0.98. Substituting the values MxM_{x}^{*}, Dx,n,qaD_{x}^{*}, n, q_{a} into (3) and we obtain a specific realization of the random interval (3), i.e., the confidence interval for aa at the confidence level pa=0.98p_{a}=0.98 :

(1.172.8210.2510,1.17+2.8210.2510)0.98=(1.029,1.311)0.98 \left(1.17-2.821 \sqrt{\frac{0.25}{10}}, 1.17+2.821 \sqrt{\frac{0.25}{10}}\right)_{0.98}=(1.029,1.311)_{0.98}

4. We find in the chi-squared distribution table or using the RESHEBNIK.VM package the quantiles qσ2(1)q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(1)} and qσ2(2)q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(2)}, such that

P(qσ2(1)<χ2<qσ2(2))=1pσ22=10.962=0.02 \mathrm{P}\left(q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(1)}<\chi^{2}<q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(2)}\right)=\frac{1-p_{\sigma^{2}}}{2}=\frac{1-0.96}{2}=0.02

We have qσ2(1)=χ1α2(m)=2.532(α=(1+pσ2)/2=0.98,m=n1=9)q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(1)}=\chi_{1-\alpha}^{2}(m)=2.532\left(\alpha=\left(1+p_{\sigma^{2}}\right) / 2=0.98, m=n-1=9\right), qσ2(2)=χ1α2(m)=19.679(α=(1pσ2)/2=0.02,m=n1=9)q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(2)}=\chi_{1-\alpha}^{2}(m)=19.679\left(\alpha=\left(1-p_{\sigma^{2}}\right) / 2=0.02, m=n-1=9\right).

5. The random interval

((n1)Dxqσ2(2),(n1)Dxqσ2(1)) \left((n-1) \frac{D_{x}^{*}}{q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(2)}},(n-1) \frac{D_{x}^{*}}{q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(1)}}\right)

contains σ2\sigma^{2} with probability pσ2=0.96p_{\sigma^{2}}=0.96. Substituting the values nn, Dx,qσ2(1),qσ2(2)D_{x}^{*}, q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(1)}, q_{\sigma^{2}}^{(2)} into (4) and we obtain a specific realization of the random interval (4), i.e., the confidence interval for σ2\sigma^{2} at the confidence level pσ2=0.96p_{\sigma^{2}}=0.96 :

(90.2519.679,90.252.532)0.96=(0.114,0.889)0.96 \left(9 \frac{0.25}{19.679}, 9 \frac{0.25}{2.532}\right)_{0.96}=(0.114,0.889)_{0.96}

Answer. a(1.029,1.311)0.98,σ2(0.114,0.889)0.96\quad a \in(1.029,1.311)_{0.98}, \quad \sigma^{2} \in(0.114,0.889)_{0.96}.

Conditions of the problem. A random variable ξ\xi is distributed according to the normal law with unknown mathematical expectation aa and variance σ2\sigma^{2}. Based on a sample of size nn, the sample mean MxM_{x}^{*} and sample variance DxD_{x}^{*} are calculated. Find the confidence intervals for aa and σ2\sigma^{2} at the confidence probabilities pap_{a} and pσ2p_{\sigma^{2}}.

1. $n=19, \quad M_{x}^{*

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.