Lecture 14 Duality Demo
STAT 515 · Lecture 14

A test and an interval make the same decision

Drag the sample mean and watch the rejection region and the confidence interval flip their verdicts at the same instant. They have to: both are built from the same standard error and the same critical value.

Ocean depth · H₀: μ = 72.4 fathoms vs. Hₐ: μ ≠ 72.4 σ = 2.1 known SE = σ/√n = 0.355
x̄ observed73.200
z observed+2.254
critical value±1.960
p-value0.024
interval for μ(72.504, 73.896)
reject H₀

The cutoffs sit one margin of error either side of μ₀, and the interval reaches one margin of error either side of x̄. That is the same distance measured from opposite ends — so “x̄ landed in the red” and “the interval missed μ₀” can never disagree.