NicholasWoolley

Period5
Mrs.Parks
TermSkittlesProject

TermProject

ReportIntroduction
ThisTermProjectspurposeistodeterminestatisticaldatafromacommonbagof
skittles.Eachstudentwithintheclasswasassignedtoaquirea2.17ouncebagofskittles,and
thencountthenumberofeachcolorskittlewithinthatbag.Thedatafromthetwentysixstudents
wasthencompiledinordertoexamineathesampleonalargerscale.Soallthestudentscould
seethedifferentamountsofeachcolor,totalskittlesineachbag,etc.Wethenusedtheseexcel
spreadsheetstogaindataonthecollectedsampleandmakehistograms,piecharts,andpareto
graphsrepresentingthedata,explainingtheeffectsofthesegraphsaswewent.Wecalculated
threeintervalmeansandtestedtwohypothesisteststhatwerebasedonthedatathatwefound
earlier.Wedeterminedthefivenumbersummary,mean,andstandarddeviation.Andwe
comparedthedatafromoursinglebagofskittlestothegroupsample.Westatedthedifferences
betweencategoricalandquantitativedata,andwrotereflectionsontheimportanceofthisproject
atitsconclusion.

OrganizingandDisplayingCategoricalData:Colors

TheGraphsfortheentireclasssampleareclosetowhatIexpectedtosee.Iwould
assumethatthecompanywouldtryandputaboutthesameamountofeachtype/colorofskittle
ineachbaginordertoappealtoallspectrumsofpeople.However,whenIlookatmydata
specifically,itappearstobealittlemessier.Goingbymydataalonethedifferentcolorsof
skittleswithineachbagvariesgreatly.Whilemyowndataandtheclasssdatadontagreewhen
compared,whentheclassdataisaddedtomyown,itevensmydataout.

Color

PercentofTotal
(personal)

Color

PercentofTotal
(class)

Red

.220

Red

.233

Orange

.119

Orange

.191

Yellow

.254

Yellow

.184

Green

.187

Green

.185

Purple

.220

Purple

.207

OrganizingandDisplayingCategoricalData:TheNumberofCandiesperBag
Mean=59.5CandiesperBag
s=2.60Candies
Min=55Candies
Q1=58Candies
Q2=60Candies
Q3=61Candies
Max=64Candies

Theshapeofthedistribution,asseeninthefrequencyhistogram,isnotwhatIwould
consideratnormallydistributed.Ithassomesemblances,likethepeakinthemiddle,thedropon
eitherside,buttheriseonbothsidesthrowsitoff.ThegraphisnotactuallywhatIexpectedto
see,Ithoughtthenumberofskittlesperbagwouldbealotmoreconcentrated,notasspreadout
asseeninthefrequencyhistogram.Thedatacollectedwithintheclassagreeswithmyowndata
beingthatthenumberofskittleswithinmybagisveryclosetothemeanamount.

PersonalBag
Red:
13
Orange:
7
Yellow:
15
Green:
11
Purple:
13
Total:
59
NumberofBagsinSample:
26

Reflection
Quantitativedatahastodowithnumbers,itcanbemeasured,calculated,andis
expressednumerically,whilecategoricaldatacannotbeexpressednumerically,itgroupsobjects
intocategoriesanddescribeaqualityorcharacteristicofsomething.Somegraphsmakesensefor
onetypeofdata,somemakesensefortheother,andsomeevenmakesenseforboth.Somethat
workforbotharefrequencytables,andpiecharts.However,somethatworkforquantitative
betterarebargraphsandlinegraphs.Thisisbecauseofthecharacteristicnatureofcategorical
data.Also,calculationsdonotalwaysworkonboth.Whilemean,median,range,standard
deviationetc.workwellwithquantitativedataduetotheirnumericalneed,theydonotwork
wellforcategorical.Butonethatcanbeusedwellforcategoricalismode.Alsogrades,and
gradecalculationsareusefulforcategoricaldata,becausealetterisnotnumerical.

ConfidenceIntervalEstimates:

Confidenceintervalsareusedinorderforusknowarangeofvaluesinwhichthetrue
valuewearelookingforlies.Sowecansay,Wearethisconfidentthevaluewearelookingfor
isbetweenthesenumbers.
#1Weare99%confidentthatthetrueproportionofyellowcandiesisbetween0and.38.

#2Weare95%confidentthatthetruemeannumberofcandiesperbagisbetween58.4candies
and60.6candies.

#3Weare98%confidentthatthetruestandarddeviationisbetween1.95candies,and3.83
candies.

HypothesisTests

Ahypothesistestisusedtofindtheprobabilityofaclaimbeingright.Sowecaneither
choosetoreject,orfailtorejecttheclaim,anddetermineiftherewassufficientevidencefound
tosupportitornot.

#1Werejectthehypothesisbecausethepvalueissmallerthanthesignificancelevel.05.We
alsodeterminedthatthereissufficientevidencetosupporttheclaim.

#2Werejectthehypothesisbecausetheteststatisticfallsintherejectionregion.Wealso
determinedthatthereissufficientevidencetosupporttheclaim.

Reflection2
Intervalestimatesareusedwhenwewanttodeterminearangeforavalue,orifweneed
topredictafuturerangebasedonknowndata.Hypothesistestsareusedwhendataisknown,but
thensomeonecomesoutwithaseparateclaimchallengingthatdata,orwhenwewanttotestthe
claimsvalidity.Bothhavecertainrequirementsthathavetobemetinorderforthemtooperate.
Thesewereallmetandmadeforsuccessfulconditions.Byusingthisdatawealwayscan
accountforsomeformofhumanerror,andweneedtoseeifwefailtoidentifyahypothesistest
correctly.Alsowithintervalestimatesitisanestimate,notatruevalue.Thesamplingmethod
couldbeimprovedbyfindingawaytolimittherangeanestimategives,alsotomakeitsimpler,
ifpossible,forimprovedefficiency.FrommystatisticalresearchIhavebeenabletodraw
conclusionsaboutthreeseparateintervalestimates,andrejecttwoclaimsthathavebeenmade
throughhypothesistesting.

ReflectiveWriting:

AsaresultofthisprojectIhavelearnedmanythings,Ihavelearnedamore,reallife
applicationtostatisticsotherthantheclassroomsetting.Itshowedmethevalueinsomethethe
statsthatwecanpullfromthedatathatpeoplegiveuseveryday,anditallowsmetobeableto
testthedifferenthypothesisfromthethousandsofdifferentopinionsIheareveryday.Statistics
formewasaverydifferenttypeofmath,oneIhadrarelyencounteredandwasneveranygood
at.ButsomeofthethingsthativelearnedIwillbeabletotakeintootherclasses.Suchas
probability,estimatingapopulationparameter,andalsoprobabilitydistributions.Someofthe
specificpartsoftheprojectthatIcouldapplyinmyotherclassisthefivenumbersummary,and

evenafrequencyhistogramorapiechart.Icouldandhaveusedafrequencyhistogramin
chemistryandapiechartinhistory.Andknowingwherethesedifferentchartsandgraphscome
fromwilldefinitelyimprovemyunderstandingofit.
Thisprojecthashelpedmedevelopmyproblemsolvingskillsinvariousways.Forone,
whenIfirstreadthroughthisprojectIdidntreallyunderstandwhatitwasaskingme.ButasI
readandrereadthedifferentsections,Iwasabletobetterunderstandanddotheprojecttothe
bestofmyabilities.Alsoitprovedimportantinhelpingmenotonlystrivetodoaparticularly
difficultproblemcorrectly,buttodoitrightthefirsttime.Thisprojectdefinitelychangedmy
viewsonmath.First,likeIsaidbefore,thiswasatotallydifferentmaththanIwasusedto,and
thisopenedmyeyestoawholenewsideofmaththatIneverreallylookedat.Alsoinlearningto
findmorecomplicatedtypesofprobabilityandlearninghowtofindpopulationparameter,Iwas
abletoknowhowtodosomethingIhadalwaysbeencuriousabout.Andlastly,thisshowedmea
wholewidespectrumofmaththatcouldbeactuallyusedintherealworldoutofhighschool.