In the article “Bactericidal Properties of Flat Surfaces and Nanoparticles Derivatized with Alkylated Polyethylenimines” (J. Lin, S. Qiu, et al., Biotechnology Progress, 2002:1082– 1086), experiments were described in which alkylated polyethylenimines were attached to surfaces and to nanoparticles to make them bactericidal. In one series of experiments, the bactericidal efficiency against the bacterium E. coli was compared for a methylated versus a non-methylated polymer. The mean percentage of bacterial cells killed with the methylated polymer was 95 with a standard deviation of 1, and the mean percentage of bacterial cells killed with the nonmethylated polymer was 70 with a standard deviation of 6. Assume that five independent measurements were made on each type of polymer. Find a 95% confidence interval for the increase in bactericidal efficiency of the methylated polymer.

Definition Definition Measure of central tendency that is the average of a given data set. The mean value is evaluated as the quotient of the sum of all observations by the sample size. The mean, in contrast to a median, is affected by extreme values. Very large or very small values can distract the mean from the center of the data. Arithmetic mean: The most common type of mean is the arithmetic mean. It is evaluated using the formula: μ = 1 N ∑ i = 1 N x i Other types of means are the geometric mean, logarithmic mean, and harmonic mean. Geometric mean: The nth root of the product of n observations from a data set is defined as the geometric mean of the set: G = x 1 x 2 ... x n n Logarithmic mean: The difference of the natural logarithms of the two numbers, divided by the difference between the numbers is the logarithmic mean of the two numbers. The logarithmic mean is used particularly in heat transfer and mass transfer. ln x 2 − ln x 1 x 2 − x 1 Harmonic mean: The inverse of the arithmetic mean of the inverses of all the numbers in a data set is the harmonic mean of the data. 1 1 x 1 + 1 x 2 + ...