Motivation
(a) If you were able to reduce the cost of the books that you buy each year by 5 or 10%, how much do you think you might be able to save in a year?
Method
(b) Create a data table of prices for the three types of books. You will compare prices of books at two Internet stores. Your data table will have four columns: one for the name of the book, one for the type of the book, and two more columns for the prices. (If you don’t have two Internet stores at which you usually shop, use amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.) What types of data are these?
(c) Identify five books of each type. These form the rows of the data table.
Mechanics
(d) Fill in your table from prices on the Web. Did you find the prices of the books that you started with, or did you have to change the choice of books to find the books at both stores?
(e) Do your prices include costs for shipping and taxes, if any? Should they?
Message
(f) Summarize the price difference that you found for each of the three types of books. Describe any clear patterns you found. For example, if one store is always cheaper, then you have an easy recommendation. Alternatively, if one store is cheaper for textbooks but more expensive for \popular books, you have a slightly more complex story to tell.