Enter your data for 1-Sample Z

Stat > Basic Statistics > 1-Sample Z

Specify the data for your analysis, enter the standard deviation, and define the null hypothesis.

In This Topic

Enter your data
Known standard deviation
Perform hypothesis test

Enter your data

Select the option that best describes your data.

One or more samples, each in a column

Complete the following steps if your data are in a column of the worksheet:

From the drop-down list, select One or more samples, each in a column.
Enter the column of numeric data that you want to analyze.
Tip
Click in the empty field under the data arrangement list to see the available data columns for your chart.

In this worksheet, Cost contains the maintenance costs of a random sample of machines.

C1
Cost
43
55
34
87

Summarized data

Complete the following steps if you have summary statistics for the sample, rather than actual sample data in the worksheet.

From the drop-down list, select Summarized data.
Enter the summary statistics in Sample size and the Sample mean.

Known standard deviation

Enter the standard deviation of the population (denoted as σ or sigma) which you might know from previous analyses. The standard deviation of the population is not the standard deviation of the sample data.

If you do not know the standard deviation of the population, use 1-Sample t.

Perform hypothesis test

If you want to calculate a p-value to determine whether the mean differs from a hypothesized mean, you must perform a hypothesis test.

Use a hypothesis test to determine whether the population mean (denoted as μ,) differs significantly from the hypothesized value (denoted as μ₀) that you specify. If you don't perform the test, Minitab still displays a confidence interval, which is a range of values that is likely to include the population mean. For more information, go to What is a hypothesis test?.
The Hypothesized mean defines your null hypothesis (H₀: μ = μ₀). Think of this value as a target value or a reference value. For example, an engineer enters 3 to determine whether the mean width of electrical wire is different from 3 mm (H₀: μ = 3).