A major U.S. oil company has developed two blends of gasoline. Managers are
interested in estimating the difference in mean gasoline mileage that will be obtained
from using the two blends. As part of their study, they have decided to run a test using
the Chevrolet Impala automobile with automatic transmissions. They selected a random
sample of 100 Impalas using Blend 1 and another 100 Impalas using Blend 2. Each car
was first emptied of all the gasoline in its tank and then filled with the designated blend
of the new gasoline. The car was then driven 200 miles on a specified route involving
both city and highway roads. The cars were then filled and the actual miles per gallon
were recorded. The following summary data were recorded:
Blend 1 Blend 2
Sample Size 100 100
Sample Mean 23.4 mpg 25.7 mpg
Sample St. Dev. 4.0 mpg 4.2 mpg
Based on these sample data, compute and interpret the 95 percent confidence interval
estimate for the difference in mean mpg for the two blends.