Splenda Versus Sugar

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Introduction The purpose of this study is to determine whether the Smith family should purchase table sugar or Splenda to sweeten coffee. Splenda, also known as sucralose, is a no-calorie sweetener that my wife believes tastes better than sugar. Teresa Smith is a self-proclaimed “taste bud” expert and believes that she can correctly identify Splenda in a taste test against table sugar. Teresa’s agreement to participate in this study has the potential to affect grocery bills for years to come considering the price difference between the two products. Splenda is roughly $0.72 per ounce while table sugar is about $0.04 per ounce. Currently, the Smith family purchases Splenda to sweeten coffee; therefore, the null hypothesis for this study is that Teresa Smith is a “taste bud” expert, or H0: p ≥ 0.9. Design of Experiment Overview The taste test was designed to randomize sample order, control variation, and ensure trial independence. These steps were necessary in order to draw unambiguous conclusions from the from the results of the test. Furthermore, each sample was presented one at a time rather than in pairs. This also was a critical aspect of the experiment’s design because it helped ensure that each trial was an independent event. If the samples were presented as pairs then only half the data would result from the same test. Simply explained, in a comparison between pairs the identification of the first sample determines the identification of the second sample because the second sample must be the opposite of the first. Therefore, both results in a pair comparison are either correct or incorrect thereby yielding only half the data. Additionally, if the samples were presented as pairs, the test subject may compare the two samples to one another and mistakenly introducing bias into the test. Both of these methodology flaws can be factored out by

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