Comparing Two Means

You have been studying the application of inference techniques to various situations involving genuine data. In the previous two topics you have investigated problems which call for inferences about a population mean. With this topic you will examine the case of comparing two sample means where the samples have been collected independently (as opposed to the paired comparisons design that you studied in the last topic). The inference procedures will again be based on the t-distribution; the reasoning behind and interpretation of the procedures remain the same as always. Also as always, you will see the importance of visual and numerical examinations of the data prior to applying formal inference procedures.