In the June 2007 issue, Consumer Reports examined top-loading and front-loading washing machines, testing samples of several different brands of each type. One of the variables the article reported was "cycle time", the number of minutes required for each machine to wash a load of clothes. Among the machines rated good to excellent, the 98
%
confidence interval for the difference in mean cycle time
(
μ
T
o
p
−
μ
F
r
o
n
t
)

was

−
40
≤
(
μ
T
o
p
−
μ
F
r
o
n
t
)
≤
−
22
. The limits of this confidence interval are negative which indicates.

A. That the mean cycle time for front loading washers is probably less than the mean cycle time for top washing loaders.