Question

6. At an emergency room at one hospital, the nurses are convinced that the number of patients that they see during the midnight shift is affected by the phases of the moon. The doctors think this is an old wives’ tale. The nurses decide to test their theory at the 0.10 level of significance by recording the number of patients they see during the midnight shift for each moon phase over the course of one lunar cycle. The results are summarized in the table below. Perform a test for goodness of fit.

ER Patients During the Midnight Shifts

  Number of Patients

New Moon 85

1 st Quarter 66

Full Moon 97

3 rd Quarter   68

Answer 1