Sherwin-Williams is a major paint manufacturer.

Recently, the research and development (R&D)

department came out with a new paint product designed to be used in areas that are particularly prone to periodic moisture and hot sun. They believe that this new paint will be superior to anything that Sherwin-Williams or its competitors currently offer.

However, they are concerned about the coverage area that a gallon of the new paint will provide compared to their current products. The R&D department set up a test in which two random samples of paint were selected. The first sample consisted of 25 one-gallon containers of the company’s best-selling paint, and the second sample consisted of 15 one-gallon containers of the new paint under consideration. The following statistics were computed from each sample and refer to the number of square feet that each gallon will cover:

Best-Selling Paint New Paint Product

–x 1  423 sq. feet –x 2  406 sq. feet s1  22.4 sq. feet s2  16.8 sq. feet n1  25 n2  15 The R&D managers are concerned the average area covered per gallon will be less for the new paint than for the existing product. Based on the sample data, what should they conclude if they base their conclusion on a significance level equal to 0.01?