You want to buy a washing machine, and a salesperson tells you that the mean repair costs for Model A and Model B are equal. You research the repair costs. The mean repair cost of 24 Model A washing machines is $208. Assume the population standard deviation is $18. The mean repair cost of 26 Model B washing machines is $221. Assume the population standard deviation is $22. At α = 0.01, can you reject the salesperson’s claim?

(a) Identify the claim and state H₀, and H_a, 

(b) Find the critical value(s) and identify the rejection region(s), 

(c) Find the standardized test statistic z, 

(d) Decide whether to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis, and 

(e) Interpret the decision in the context of the original claim. Assume the samples are random and independent, and the populations are normally distributed.