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Minimizing tractor skidding distance. When planning for a
Chapter 6, Problem 35E(choose chapter or problem)
Minimizing tractor skidding distance. When planning for a new forest road to be used for tree harvesting, planners must select the location to minimize tractor skidding distance. In the Journal of Forest Engineering (July 1999), researchers wanted to estimate the true mean skidding distance along a new road in a European forest. The skidding distances (in meters) were measured at 20 randomly selected road sites. These values are given in the accompanying table.
a. Estimate the true mean skidding distance for the road with a 95% confidence interval.
b. Give a practical interpretation of the interval, part a.
c. What conditions are required for the inference, part b, to be valid? Are these conditions reasonably satisfied?
d. A logger working on the road claims the mean skidding distance is at least 425 meters. Do you agree?
Source: Based on Tujek, J., & Pacola, E. “Algorithms for skidding distance modeling on a raster digital terrain model” Journal of Forest Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 1, July 1999 (Table 1).
Questions & Answers
QUESTION:
Minimizing tractor skidding distance. When planning for a new forest road to be used for tree harvesting, planners must select the location to minimize tractor skidding distance. In the Journal of Forest Engineering (July 1999), researchers wanted to estimate the true mean skidding distance along a new road in a European forest. The skidding distances (in meters) were measured at 20 randomly selected road sites. These values are given in the accompanying table.
a. Estimate the true mean skidding distance for the road with a 95% confidence interval.
b. Give a practical interpretation of the interval, part a.
c. What conditions are required for the inference, part b, to be valid? Are these conditions reasonably satisfied?
d. A logger working on the road claims the mean skidding distance is at least 425 meters. Do you agree?
Source: Based on Tujek, J., & Pacola, E. “Algorithms for skidding distance modeling on a raster digital terrain model” Journal of Forest Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 1, July 1999 (Table 1).
ANSWER:
Solution :
Step 1 of 4:
Given the skidding distances were measured at 20 randomly selected road sites.
Then the table is given below.
488 |
350 |
457 |
199 |
285 |
409 |
435 |
574 |
439 |
546 |
385 |
295 |
184 |
261 |
273 |
400 |
311 |
312 |
141 |
425 |
a). Now we have to estimate the true mean skidding distance for the road with a 95% confidence interval.
We know that the variable N=20.
Now we are using excel to find the distribution.
We use the function =Average() to find the mean.
Then =Average() select all the data, then ok.
We get the mean value.
Then standard deviation =std() select all the data values
Then we get standard deviation.etc.
Using excel we get,
Variable |
Skid |
N |
20 |
Mean |
358.5 |
Standard deviation |
117.8 |
Minimum |
141 |
Quartile 1 |
276 |
Median |
367.5 |
Quartile 3 |
438 |
Maximum |
574 |
We know that level of significance
Then,
Now the degrees of freedom is n-1.
n-1 = 20-1
n-1 = 19
Then,
So the confidence interval is
We know that , , n, and s.
Therefore, the 95% confidence interval is between 303.37 and 413.63 meters.