Data from the Titanic

Name:______Name:______

MATH 2050 Classwork

September 4, 2009

Data from the Titanic

Graphs

Before you start, get a copy the titanic3.xls file from the class web site. Take a look at the data in this file. This is data on all the passengers of the Titanic.

1.Analyzing survival vs. passenger class You’ll notice that the Survived column has zeros and ones. A zero represents that the person in that row died, while a one means they survived. We want to compare the rates of survival for passengers in the different classes. First, click at the bottom of the screen to add a tab to the spreadsheet. This will contain our work, so that we don’t change the data accidentally.

Now, we want to look at the survival values for only passengers who were in first class. Make sure that your data has been sorted so that all the first class passengers are grouped together, then copy the part of the Survived column that corresponds to first class. Paste this part of the column into your new tab, and label it appropriately.

Now we’d like to create a pie chart with this data. Pie charts in Excel require summary data, so we will have to count how many ones and zeros are in this column. You will use the COUNTIF command to do this:

Now highlight the table you just created, and use Insert -> Pie Chart to create a pie chart.

Repeat these steps to create pie charts for the survival of second class and third class passengers, as well. Comment on what these graphs tell you about the survival rates in each class.

Now I’d like you to take the same data and create a stacked bar graph. To do so, you will have to arrange the data into a table. Then use Insert -> Bar -> 3D Bar to get a stacked bar graph. Comment on how this presentation of the data is different from using several pie charts. Which presentation is more effective at telling a story?

2. Analyzing survival vs. sex Comment on the sexes of those who survived compared to the sexes of those who died, and back up your comments with the appropriate statistical graphs.

3. Revisiting survival vs. class The graphs you created in number 1 compared the survival rates of the passengers in the different classes. Now create pie charts that compare the classes of the survivors to those of the passengers who died. Comment on how these graphs differ from those in number 1.

4. Analyzing survival vs. age Suppose we want to compare the survival rates by age instead of by passenger class or by gender. The graphs we have used so far won’t work. Why?

In order to compare the ages of survivors to the ages of those who died, we would use what type of graph?

This type of graph is not automatically available in Excel, and since I’m not sure that the add-on package has been included in the machines in the classroom, I’m not going to have you create them using Excel. However, you can use Excel to make it easier to create them by hand. Start by creating columns that contain the ages of only the survivors and the ages of only those who died. Then sort these columns and use them to create graphs comparing the ages of the survivors to the ages of those who died. Comment on what these graphs show.