Question 15 • Probability and Statistics with Applications Honors Sem-1-FL-1210300 (2024-2025)
A florist wants to determine if a new additive would extend the life of cut flowers longer than the original additive. The florist selects the first 20 carnations from the ones recently delivered by the greenhouse and assigns the first 10 to the new additive and the rest to the original additive. After three weeks, 6 carnations placed in the new additive still looked healthy, and 2 carnations placed in the original additive still looked healthy. The proportion of healthy carnations with the new additive was significantly greater than the proportion of healthy carnations with the original additive.
Answer
A
It can be inferred that the new additive caused the extended life of the cut flowers, and this inference can be applied to all carnations.
B
It cannot be inferred that the new additive caused the extended life of the cut flowers, and this inference cannot be applied to the carnations from the greenhouse.
C
It can be inferred that the new additive caused the extended life of the cut flowers, and this inference can only be applied to the carnations from the greenhouse.
D
It cannot be inferred that the new additive caused the extended life of the cut flowers, and this inference can only be applied to the carnations from the greenhouse.
Explanation
The carnations were not randomly assigned: the first 10 received the new additive and the rest received the original one. Other differences between the two groups could explain the result, so the study does not show that the additive caused the difference. The first 20 were also not randomly sampled from all the greenhouse’s carnations, so the result cannot be generalized to those carnations; it describes only the flowers tested. Choice B is correct.
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