To investigate the efficiency of a diet, a random sample of 16 male patients is drawn from a population of adult males using the diet. The weight of each individual in the sample is taken at the start of the diet, and at a follow-up 4 weeks later. Assuming that the population of differences in weight, before versus after the diet, follow a normal distribution, the t test for related samples can be used to determine if there was a significant decrease in the mean weight during this period. Suppose the mean decrease in weights over all 16 subjects in the study is 3.0 pounds with the standard deviation of differences computed as 6.0 pounds.
Referring to the information above, the computed t statistic is: