1.

Determinetheproportionofeachcolorwithintheoverallsamplegatheredbythe
class.
a. Guess!Whatdoyouexpecttheproportionstobe?Why?
i.

Jessica'sGuess:
PriortoinputtingourtotalsintoStatcrunchIguessed
thateachbagwouldconsistofmoregreenyellowskittlesthananyother
color.Mainlybecausethosetendtobecolorsthatpeoplenoticethemost
becausetheyarentthefavoriteflavors.AsIwaslookingovermysample
ofskittlesInoticedthattherewasanaverageof12skittlesofeachcolor.
Assumingthatthereareapproximately75studentsparticipatinginthis
course,dueto15Groupdiscussionswithatleast5peopleineachgroup,
I'mguessingthattherewillbeapproximately900skittlesofeachcolor.

ii.

Jason'sGuess:
Ithinkeachcoloris1/5ofthetotal.Idon'tthinkthe
skittlesmanufactureshaveasecretcoloragendatopushonemorethan
another.Ialsothinkthateachcolorhasthesamecosttoproduce.

iii.

Scott'sguess:
myguesswouldbethateachcoloraccountsforabout20%
oftheoverallsample.Iamguessingthatatskittlesfactorieseachcoloris
producedequally,butthatwhentheyareputinpackagesitisdoneby
randomchance.Therefore,theremaybequiteabitofvariationwithina
singlepackage(aswesawwithstudent63receiving18purpleskittlesand
student46receiving0purpleskittles).However,asmoreandmoredata
(skittles)iscollected,wewouldstarttoseethenumbersevenout.

iv.

Maddison'sGuess:
Inoticedwithmysamplethattheaverageofeach
colorwas12.Sincethereare57studentsinourclass,assumingtheyall
participated,thereshouldbeabout684skittlesofeachcolor.

v.

All
Weallguessedthata2.17ozbagofskittlescontainedeither:12
skittlesofeachcolor,ofthebagiseachcolorofskittle,20%ofthebag
iseachcolorofskittle.Whichisaboutthesameamount,nomatterwhich
wayyouchosetoestimate.Nextwefoundthetotalnumberofstudents

participatinginthesample,whichis97.Afterdoingsomequickmath
basedoffofeithertheaveragenumber,fraction,orpercentwecameup
withourselvesroughestimatesweremadeofwhattheclasssample
wouldbe.Weallcameoutwithdifferentnumbersduetocomingupwith
differentclasssizes,buttheywereallright.
b. NowopenthedatasetandcomparetheproportionsofRed,Orange,Yellow,
Green,andPurplecandiesintheclassdataset.Notethatthesamplesizeis
thetotalnumberofcandiescollectedbytheclass.
i.

Well,wewereallwrongonthetotalnumberofskittles.Itlookslike
ProfessorMawmayhavecombinedclasseswith94studentsworking
togethertomakeupthesamplesizeof5650skittles.Thisproportionally
equatesto:
1. Red=1164=(1164/5650=0.206=20.6%)
2. Orange=1117=(1117/5650=0.197=19.7%)
3. Yellow=1189=(1189/5650=0.210=21%)
4. Green=1087=(1087/5650=0.192=19.2%)
5. Purple=1093=(1093/5650=0.193=19.3%)

2. InStatCrunch,createapiechartandaParetochartforthetotalnumberofcandies
ofeachcolorinourclassdataset.


MyBag

Count

Count

Count

Count

Count

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Purple

Total

12

10

12

13

12

59

1164

1117

1189

1087

1093

5650

Class
Counts

3. Doestheclassdatarepresentarandomsample?Whatwouldthepopulationbe?
a. Thebooksays,"Whenadministeringasurvey,theresearchermustfirstidentify
thepopulationthatistobetargeted."Wewillthereforebeginourdiscussionby
definingthepopulation.
b. Thepopulationthatseemsmostcorrectisallofthe2.17ozskittlebagsinUtah.
Amorenarrowpopulationmaybeeasiertoworkwith,butsincewehaveatleast
threestudentsthatliveoutsideoftheSaltLakeValley(fromourintroductions
discussionatthestartofthesemesterweidentifiedtwostudent'swholivein
TooeleandonestudentwholivesinLogan)alloftheskittlebagsinonecityor
evenonecountyistoonarrow
4. ARandomSample?
a. RandomSample
istheprocessofusingchancetoselectindividualsfroma
populationtobeincludedinthesample.
b.
Thereseemstobetwopossibilitieshere.Thefirstisthatthisexperiment
resemblesarandomsample,butithasafewflaws.Ratherthanpickingabagof
skittlesbychance,wehypothesizethatmoststudentspickedabagoutof
convenience.Thescenariolikelywentsomethinglikethisforeachstudent,"Oh
no,itis10PMandIhaveaskittlesassignmentdueat11:59pm!"Thisstudent
thenrunstothenearestconveniencestore,picksupthefirstbagofskittlesona
shelfthatisabouteyelevelandpurchasesit.Thebooksays"Ifconvenienceis
usedtoobtainasample,theresultsofthesurveyaremeaningless."

c. Toobtainatrulyrandomsamplewewouldhavetoobtainalistofallstoreswhere
skittlesarestoredinUtah.Theneachparticipantwouldhavetorandomlypicka
store(andyoumightgetastoreinSt.Georgeorsomewherefaraway).Onceat
thestoretheindividualwouldhavetothrowallofthebagsofskittlesinthatstore
intoonecontainerand,finally,randomlypickabag.
d. Somethingelsetoconsiderisperhapstheskittlesfactorydoestherandomization
forus.Iftheyrandomlyputthe5colorsintobagsthendoesitreallymatterifwe
pickrandombagssincethecontentsofeachbagisalreadyrandom??AmI
makingsense?