Clams in Garrison Bay

By Autumn and Zach

For chapter 8.2 Zach and I were given a data set and had to apply the
concepts that we learned in the chapter to them. The set of data we were
assigned was the width of little neck clams in mm. The clams were also
found in Garrison bay where all the data on the clams were collected. The
concepts and data we had to calculate and apply to the data are sample size,
sample mean, sample standard deviation, degrees of freedom, critical values,
maximal margin of error, and confidence intervals for . To explain how we
applied these definitions Ill be explaining our data below.
In order to find the sample size we counted the number of clams that
were measured in mm; 494, 477, 471, 413, 407, 427, 408, 430, 395, 417, 394,
397, 402, 401, 385, 338, 422, 288, 464, 436, 414, 402, 383, 340, 349, 333,
356, 268, 264, 141, 77, 498, 433, 447. As you can see for our data the
measurement of 35 clams were take which is why our sample size is 35
(sample size = N). In order to get the sample mean (

)and standard

deviation () we plugged our data into the table in our calculated and went to
1-var stats clicked enter twice to get the sample mean as 384mm and the
sample standard deviation of 89mm. What this tells us about our data is

where the middle of our data falls and how much our data is spread apart.
After we found that we moved on to the degrees of freedom (d.f.) and used
the equation N-1 to find out that the degrees of freedom is equal to 34. What
this tells us is that the data is free from vary.
After we found all that data, we went to find out Critical values for
90%, 95%, and 99% confidence levels so we could find the maximal margin
of error. This tells us the boundaries in our data and the level that our data
falls in. The way we found the Critical values (

zc

) for 90%, 95%, and 99%

confidence levels was by going in the back of the book and looking up what
they were; 90%= 1.645, 95%= 1.96, 99%= 2.58. After we found that we used
the data we found to find the maximal margin of error and we used it to
Determine 90%, 95%, and 99% confidence intervals for . We found the

maximal margin of error (E) by using the equation E=

89

zc

) and

plugging in the data we found above; 1.645 ( 35 ) = 24.74mm, 1.95 (

89
35

) = 29.34mm, 2.58 (

89
35

) =38.81mm. Then after that we used this

data to Determine 90%, 95%, and 99% confidence intervals for . We did this
by using the equation

- E < <

+ E which is how we go the

confidence intervals for as 384mm - 24.74mm < < 384mm - 24.74mm =

359.26mm < < 408.74mm for 90%, 384mm - 29.34mm < < 384mm 29.34mm = 354.66mm < < 413.34mm for 95%, and 384mm - 38.81mm <
< 384mm - 38.81mm = 345.19mm < < 422.81mm for 99%. What this
data tells about our data is where the average mean is located in our data and
how confident our data is that it is between those two intervals.
If I would have had the population standard deviation I simply would
have used the table number 4 in our book instead of table number 3. I also
would have used a different margin of error equation, which would have been
E=

t c(

)
n