Chapter 4.2, Problem 88E

(a)

To determine

To identify any flaws you see in the proposed design for this experiment.

Explanation of Solution

In the question, the researchers want to find out do people naturally wake up earlier when they set alarm before going to sleep or not. Thus, the flaws in this experiment can be as Justin does not set an alarm in the weekend, while he does set an alarm during the week. This is not a good design, because (in general) you do not have to get up as early in the weekend as you have to do during the week. For example, during the week you have to go to school or work and thus could influence the time at which you wake up automatically (and thus this could make you wake up earlier automatically). The experiment should also allow for more than two repetitions for each treatment.

(b)

To determine

To describe how you would design the experiment and explain how your design addresses each of the problem you identified in part (a).

Explanation of Solution

In the question, the researchers want to find out do people naturally wake up earlier when they set alarm before going to sleep or not. Thus, you will do the experiment for five weeks and set the alarm on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Then, you randomly pick two of the days each week on which you set your alarm and you do not set the alarm on the other two days. Then, record the wake up time on each day. And then compare the average wake-up time with and without the alarm.