Given the following sample data:

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 21 17 29 25 15 38 36 34 28 35 22 27 33 16 14 23 19 26 31 30 39 32 20 36

a. State the appropriate null and alternative hypotheses to test whether there is a difference in the medians of the three populations.

b. Based on the sample data and a significance level of 0.05, what conclusion should be reached about the medians of the three populations if you are not willing to make the assumption that the populations are normally distributed?

c. Test the hypothesis stated in part

a, assuming that the populations are normally distributed with equal variances.

d. Which of the procedures described in parts b and c would you select to analyze the data? Explain your reasoning.