Chicken farming is a multi-billion dollar industry, and any methods that increase the growth rate of young chicks can reduce consumer costs while increasing company profits, possibly by millions of dollars. An experiment was conducted to measure and compare the effectiveness of various feed supplements on the growth rate of chickens. Newly hatched chicks were randomly allocated into six groups, and each group was given a different feed supplement. Below are some summary statistics from this data set along with box plots showing the distribution of weights by feed type.

(a) Describe the distributions of weights of chickens that were fed linseed and horsebean. 

(b) Do these data provide strong evidence that the average weights of chickens that were fed linseed and horsebean are different? Use a 5% significance level. 

(c) What type of error might we have committed? Explain. 

(d) Would your conclusion change if we used a = 0.01?

Weight (in grams) 400- 350- 300- 250- 200- 150- 100- HO casein horsebean linseed meatmeal soybean sunflower casein horsebean linseed meatmeal soybean sunflower Mean SD 323.58 64.43 12 160.20 38.63 52.24 218.75 276.91 64.90 246.43 54.13 14 328.92 48.84 12 n PU2HH2 10 12 11