In an effort to better manage her inventory levels, the owner of two steak and seafood restaurants, both located in the same city, hires a statistician to conduct a statistical study. The owner is interested in whether the restaurant located on the east side sells more halibut fillets per night than the restaurant located on the west side of the city.
The statistician selects a random sample of size n₁ = 35 nights that the eastside restaurant is open. For each night in the sample, he collects data on the number of halibut fillets sold at the eastside location and computes the sample mean M₁ = 7.32 and the sample variance s₁² = 36. Likewise, he selects a random sample of size n₂ = 32 nights that the westside restaurant is open. For each night in the sample, he collects data on the number of halibut fillets sold at the westside location and computes the sample mean M₂ = 3.00 and the sample variance s₂² = 30.
The statistician checks and concludes that the data satisfy the required assumptions for the independent-measures t test. Then he computes the 90% confidence interval for estimating the difference between the mean number of halibut fillets sold per night at the eastside restaurant and the mean number of halibut fillets sold per night at the westside restaurant. This 90% confidence interval is 4.32 ± 2.3499 halibut fillets.
If he were to formulate null and alternative hypotheses as H₀: μ₁ - μ₂ = 0, H₁: μ₁ - μ₂ ≠ 0 and conduct a hypothesis test with α = .10, the null hypothesis _______ rejected based on the result that a difference of zero _______ in the computed interval. Hence, he would conclude that there _______ a significant difference between the mean nightly sales of halibut fillets between the two restaurants.