Reducing scrap of 4-foot planks of hardwood is an important factor in reducing cost at a wood-floor manufacturing company. Accordingly, engineers at Lumberworks are investigating a potential new cutting method involving lateral sawing that may reduce the scrap rate. To examine its viability, two independent, random, representative samples of planks were examined. One sample contained 200 planks which were sawed using the old method. The other sample contained 400 planks which were sawed using the new method. Sixty-two of the 200 planks were scrapped under the old method of sawing, whereas 36 of the 400 planks were scrapped under the new method. Required:
a. Construct the 90% confidence interval for the difference between the population scrap rates between the old and new methods, respectively.
b. Write the null and alternative hypotheses to test for differences in the population scrap rates between the old and new cutting methods, respectively.
c. Using the part a results, can we conclude at the 10% significance level that the scrap rate of the new method is different than the old method?