Data, Sampling, and Variation in Data and Sampling · Exercise 15

Studies are often done by pharmaceutical companies to determine the effectiveness of a treatment program. Suppose that a new drug is currently under study to address a respiratory virus. It is given to patients once the patient exhibits symptoms of the virus. Of interest is the average (mean) length of time in days from the time the patient starts the treatment until the symptoms are alleviated. Two researchers each follow a different set of 40 patients with the respiratory virus from the start of treatment until the symptoms are alleviated. The following data (in days) are collected.

Researcher A: 3; 4; 11; 15; 16; 17; 22; 44; 37; 16; 14; 24; 25; 15; 26; 27; 33; 29; 35; 44; 13; 21; 22; 10; 12; 8; 40; 32; 26; 27; 31; 34; 29; 17; 8; 24; 18; 47; 33; 34

Researcher B: 3; 14; 11; 5; 16; 17; 28; 41; 31; 18; 14; 14; 26; 25; 21; 22; 31; 2; 35; 44; 23; 21; 21; 16; 12; 18; 41; 22; 16; 25; 33; 34; 29; 13; 18; 24; 23; 42; 33; 29

Would you expect the data to be identical? Why or why not?

Its source prints no answer for this problem, so there's nothing to check against.

OpenStax, Introductory Statistics 2e · §1.2 Data, Sampling, and Variation in Data and Sampling · Exercise 15