§1.2 p. 9 #9-16
Instructions: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval or Ratio data?
9. Heights of women basketball players in the WNBA
10. Rating of fantastic, good, average, poor or unacceptable for blind dates
11. Current temperatures of the classrooms at your college
12. Numbers on the jerseys of women basketball players in the WNBA
13. Consumer Reports magazine ratings of “best buy, recommended, not recommended”
14. social security numbers
15. The number of “yes” responses received when 1250 drivers are asked if they have
ever used a cell phone while driving
16. Zip Codes
§1.3 p. 17 #5-10all, #18&19
Instructions: In 5-10 use critical thinking to address the key issue
5. Chocolate Health Food. The New York Times published an article that included these statements: “At long last, chocolate moves toward its rightful place in the food pyramid, somewhere in the high-tone neighborhood of red wine, fruits and vegetables and green tea. Several studies, reported in the Journal of Nutrition, showed that after eating chocolate, test subjects had increased levels of antioxidants in their blood. Chocolate contains flavonoids, antioxidants that have been associated with decreased risk of heart disease and stroke. Mars Inc., the candy company, and the Chocolate Manufacturers association financed much of the research.” What is wrong with this study?
6. Census Data. After the last national census was conducted, the Poughkeepsie Journal ran this front-page headline: “281,421,906 in America.” What is wrong with this headline?
7. Mail Survey. When author Shere Hite wrote Woman and Love: A Cultural Revolution in Progress, she based conclusions on 4500 replies that she received after mailing 100,000 questionnaires to various women’s groups. Are her conclusions likely to be valid in the sense that they can be applied to the general population of all women? Why or why not?
8. “900” Numbers. In an ABC Nightline poll, 186,000 viewers each paid 50 cents to call a “900” telephone number with their opinion about keeping the United Nations in the United States. The results showed that 67% of those who called were in favor of moving the United Nations out of the United States. Interpret the results by identifying what we can conclude about the way the general population feels about keeping the United Nations in the United States.
9. Telephone Surveys. The Hartford Insurance company has hired you to poll a sample of adults about their car purchases. What is wrong with using people with telephone numbers listed in directories as the population from which the sample is drawn?
10. Crime and Buses. The Newport Chronicle claims that bus stops cause crime, because a study showed that crime rates are higher in cities with bus stops than in rural areas that have no bus stops. What is wrong with that claim?
Instructions: In the following answer the questions that relate to percentages.
18. Percentages
a. What is 26% of 950
b. Convert 5% to an equivalent decimal.
c. Convert 0.01 to an equivalent percentage.
d. Convert the fraction 527/1200 to an equivalent percentage. Express the answer to
the nearest tenth of a percent.
19. Percentages in a Gallup Poll.
a. In a Gallup poll, 52% of 1038 surveyed adults said that secondhand smoke is “very
harmful.” What is the actual number of adults who said that secondhand smoke is
“very harmful”?
b. Among the 1038 surveyed adults, 52 said that secondhand smoke is “not at all
harmful.” What percentage of people who chose “not at all harmful.”
§1.4 p. 26 #9-20all
Instructions: Which is the type of sampling used: random, systematic, convenience, stratified or cluster?
9. Television News. An NBC television news reporter gets a reaction to a breaking story by polling people as they pass the front of his studio.
10. Jury Selection. The Dutchess County Commissioner of Jurors obtains a list of 42,763 car owners and constructs a pool of jurors by selecting every 100th name on that list.
11. Telephone Polls. In a Gallup poll of 1059 adults, the interview subjects were selected by using a computer to randomly generate telephone number that were then called.
12. Car Ownership. A General Motors researcher has portioned all registered cars into categories of subcompact, compact, mid-size, intermediate, and full-size. She is surveying 200 car owners from each category.
13. Student Drinking. Motivated by a student who died from binge drinking, the College of Newport conducts a study of student drinking by randomly selecting 10 different classes and interviewing all the students in each of those classes.
14. Marketing. A marketing executive for General Motors finds that its public relations department has just printed envelopes with the names and addresses of all Corvette owners. She wants to do a plot test of a new marketing strategy, so she thoroughly mixes all of the envelopes in a bin, then obtains a sample group by pulling 50 of those envelopes.
15. Sobriety Checkpoint. The author was an observer at a police sobriety checkpoint at which every 5th driver was stopped and interviewed. (He witnessed the arrest of a former student.)
16. Exit Poll: CNN is planning an exit poll in which 100 polling stations will be randomly selected and all voters will be interviewed as they leave the premises.
17. Education and Salary: An economist is studying the effect of education on salary and conducts a survey of 150 randomly selected workers from each of these categories: less than a high-school degree; high-school degree; more than a high-school degree.
18. Anthropometrics: A statistics student obtains height/weight data by interviewing family members.
19. Medical Research: A JohnsHopkinsUniversity researcher surveys all cardiac patients in each of 30 randomly selected hospitals.
20. MTV Survey: A marketing expert for MTV is planning a survey in which 500 people will be randomly selected from each age group of 10-19, 20-29, and so on.