Given the common difference and the first term of an arithmetic sequence, which formula, the recursive or explicit formula, would be more useful to determine a500? Explain your answer change if you knew the value of a499? Explain

An automobile assembly line operation has a scheduled mean completion time, μ, of 12 minutes. the standard deviation of completion times is 1.6 minutes. it is claimed that, under new management, the mean completion time has decreased. to test this claim, a random sample of 33 completion times under new management was taken. the sample had a mean of 11.2 minutes. assume that the population is normally distributed. can we support, at the 0.05 level of significance, the claim that the mean completion time has decreased under new management? assume that the standard deviation of completion times has not changed.