ReneeKeomanivong

Math1040
InstructorPingYu
SkittlesTermProject

ForthisprojectIwillbeabletousemanyoftheconceptsIvelearnedthissemester.The
projectwillincludingorganizing,analyzingdata,drawingconclusionsusingconfidenceintervals
andhypothesistests.Intheprojectwegathereddatafromaskittlesbag,whereweeachbought
a2.17ouncebagthenseparatedthecolorsandcollectedthedata.

DataCollection
Formypurchasedone2.17ouncebagoftheOriginalSkittlesandrecordedthefollowingdata:

Numberof
redcandies

Numberof
orangecandies

Numberof
yellowcandies

Numberof
greencandies

Numberof
purplecandies

13

19

10

12

ClassData

red

orange

yellow

green

purple

12

15

13

12

14

17

14

10

12

17

10

18

13

10

13

13

15

11

11

17

14

13

15

10

13

10

14

10

19

11

16

11

12

10

11

17

12

11

11

12

10

10

12

10

11

13

13

12

15

13

14

20

11

14

15

14

16

10

16

16

16

18

10

12

17

13

21

10

18

15

12

13

11

19

14

10

17

20

10

13

14

10

21

26

12

22

12

15

11

11

12

23

12

13

14

13

24

18

20

12

25

13

10

10

15

14

26

13

19

10

12

27

14

13

14

10

28

15

10

14

16

29

10

14

15

12

11

30

12

12

11

14

13

total

366

343

314

355

346

OrganizingandDisplayingCategoricalData:colors

TheobservationsofthedataandthegraphsreflectedwhatIexpected.Iusedapiechart
andaparetocharttocomparetheclassdatawithmydata.Eventhoughwehadveryclose

numbersforthecharts,Iendeduphavingthecolororangeasmymajorityat31.148%where
theclassmajoritycolorwasredat21.230%.Mychartsshowedthatmycolorsvariedwherethe
classgraphwereallaboutthesameamount.

OrganizingandDisplayingQuantitativeDatatheNumberofCandiesperBag

Column n

Mean

Standard
Deviation

Min

Q1

Median

Q3

Max

Total

59.4

2.39

53

58

60

61

64

29

TheshapeofthedistributiongraphIhaveisskewedtotheleft.Mygraphdoesmatchmy
expectationsbecauseIexpectedthateverybagshouldhavearoundthesameamount.
However,thegraphshowsthattheamountofskittlesineachbagfavorsthehighendrather
thanthelowend.Iexpectedthatitwouldbeequalonbothsideofthemedianbutthegraph
clearlyshowsaslightskewtotheleft.Althoughweonlyhad29samplessoifthereweremore
samplesthenthegraphmightevenoutabitmore.Mybaghad61skittleswhichwascloseto
themedianoftheclassdata.ForthatreasonIbelievethatmyclassdataalignswithwhatIgot
frommybagofskittles.

Reflection
Instatisticswehavedifferenttypeofdata,whereweneedtolearnthedifference
betweenthetermsquantitativedataandcategoricaldata.Quantitativedataarenumbers
representedbycountingormeasurements.Anexampleforquantitativedatacanbethetotal
numberofskittlesinanormalsizedskittlebag.Histogramandtheboxplotmakesensefor
quantitativedatabecausewearecomparingdifferentnumbers.Howeverapiechartorapareto
chartwouldnotmakesensebecausewearenotcomparingnumberstoalabelorsomesort.As
forcalculation,wecancalculatethemeanandstandarddeviationforquantitativedatabutit
wouldnotbeusefulforustocalculatethepercentageofeachofourdatavalues.For
categoricaldataconsistsofnamesorlabelsthatarenotnumbersrepresentingcountsor
measurements.Anexamplewouldbehowmanypurplesdidyougetfromtheskittlesbag.Pie
chartandparetochartaregreatforrepresentingthesesortsofdatabecausewecanseethe

comparisonofeachofthecategory.Ontheotherhand,histogramandboxplotwouldnotbetoo
usefulbecausewearenotcomparingnumberstoeachother.Wecancalculatethepercentage
ofacertaincategoryforcategoricaldatasbutitwouldnotmaketoomuchsensetocalculatethe
standarddeviationofacategoricaldata.

ConfidenceIntervalEstimates

Anconfidenceintervalisarangeofvaluesusedtoestimatethetruevalueofa
populationparameter,wheretheyarealsoabbreviatedasCI.Thepurposeofconfidence
intervalistotellustheestimate,whereweusethebestpointestimateofthepopulation
proportion.Yetthepointestimateisasinglevaluethatgivesusnoindicationofhowgoodthat
bestestimateis.Statisticianshavecleverlydevelopedtheconfidenceinterval,whichconsistsof
arangeofvaluesinsteadofasinglevalue,whereitgivesusabettersenseofhowgoodthe
estimateis.


Ihadtodo3differentconfidenceintervalestimate.Onefora99%confidenceintervalof
thetrueproportionofyellowcandies,anotherfora95%confidenceintervaloftheestimatefor
thetruemeannumberofcandiesperbag,andfinallyonefora98%confidenceintervalforthe
standarddeviationofthenumberofcandiesperbag.
Forthe99%confidenceintervalofthetrueproportionofyellowcandiesIgot.158<p<
0.206.ThismeanthatIam99%surethatthetrueproportionofyellowcandiesisbetween0.158
and0.206.
TheanswerIgotforthe95%confidenceintervaloftheestimateforthetruemean
numberofcandiesperbagwas58.48<<60.32.ThismeansthatIcanbe95%confidentthat
allskittlesbagswillhaveabout59.4plusorminus0.92candiesperbag.
Theanswerforthe98%confidenceintervalforthestandarddeviationofthenumberof
candiesperbagwas1.8<<3.4.ThismeanthatIcanbe98%confidentthatallskittlesbag
willhaveastandarddeviationbetween1.8and3.4.

HypothesisTests
Instatistics,ahypothesisisaclaimorstatementaboutapropertyofapopulation.A
hypothesistestisaprocedurefortestingaclaimaboutapropertyofapopulation.Thegeneral
componentsofaformalhypothesistestarethefollowing:identifythenullhypothesisand
alternativehypothesisfromagivenclaimandexpressbothinsymbolicform.Calculatethe
valueoftheteststatistic,givenaclaimandasampledata.Choosethesamplingdistribution
thatisrelevant.EitherfindthePvalueoridentifythecriticalvalues.Statetheconclusionabout
aclaiminsimpleandnontechnicalterms.

Ihadtodotwohypothesistestformydataset.Thefirstwasdonebyusinga0.05
significanceleveltotesttheclaimthat20%ofallskittlescandiesarered.Thesecondwasdone
byusinga0.01significanceleveltotesttheclaimthatthemeannumberofcandiesinabagof
skittlesis55.ForthefirsttestIfoundthattherewassufficientevidencetosupporttheclaimthat
20%ofallskittlescandiesarered.Asforthesecondtest,Ifoundthattherewasnotenough
evidencetosupporttheclaimthatthereare55skittlesinabag.

Reflection


Thereare3conditionsfordoingconfidenceintervalestimatesofapopulationproportionp.
These3conditionsare:
Thesampleisasimplerandomsample.
Eitherthepopulationisnormallydistributedorn>30
Thereareatleast5successesandatleast5failures.
Thereare2conditionsfordoingconfidenceintervalforestimatingapopulationstandard
deviationorvariationwhichare:
Thesampleisasimplerandomsample
Thepopulationmusthavenormallydistributedvalues.
Finallythereare2conditionsforconfidenceintervalforestimatingapopulationmeanwithnot
knownwhichare:
Thesampleisasimplerandomsample.
Eitherthepopulationisnormallydistributedorn>30.
Theseconditionsalsoappliestothehypothesistestaswell.
Thereareafewmistakesthatmighthavehappenedwhenthedatawasbeinggathered.
Forexamplesomeonecouldhavecountedtheskittlesincorrectlyandsothatmighthave
skewedthedata.Anotherproblemwouldbeifsomeoneforgottogetaskittlebag.Thisisa
problembecausethiswouldgiveusasmallersamplesizethus,thecalculationwouldyielda
lessaccurateresult.
Therearemanywaysthatthesamplingmethodcouldbeimproved.Wecouldhave
madeeveryonetakeapictureoftheirsamplesothatwearesurethattheycountedtheirskittles
correctly.Anotherthingwecouldhavedoneisbuymorebagsofskittlesbutcounttheskittlesin
eachbagseparately.Thiswouldgiveusmoresampleswhichwouldmakeourresultsmore
accurate.
Inconclusionthereareacoupleofthingsthatweconcludefromthisresearch.I
concludedthattheamountofeachofthecolorsofskittlesineachbagareallaboutthesame
amount.Nocolorofskittleswerenoticeablymorefavorablethananother.AnotherthingthatI
couldconcludewasthatthemeanthatwegotfromtheclassdatafallsbetweenthetruemean
thatIcalculated.