Questions and Answers of Statistical Reasoning For Everyday Life

In a Gallup poll of 1236 adult respondents, 5% said that bad luck follows breaking a mirror. That percentage has a margin of error of 1.2 percentage points. Why is it misleading to state that the
Numbers of words spoken in a day by a sample of malesLevels of Measurement. For the data described in Exercises, identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio).
Go to the website for the U.S. Census Bureau and investigate the census conducted every 10 years. How and when will data be collected for the next census? Are any significant changes in the
Find the current estimate of world population on the U.S. Census Bureau’s world population clock. Describe the percentage change in population since the 6 billion mark was passed during 1999. Also
Use the Library of Congress’s “Thomas” website to find out about any pending legislation concerning the collection or use of census data. If you find more than one legislative bill pending,
Go to the website for the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) and find a recent report giving statistics on substance abuse. Write a summary of the new research, giving at least
Use a website that gives you the local time (such as www.time.gov) to set a watch to the nearest second. Then compare the time on your watch with the times on your friends’ watches. Record the
Find three recent news reports in which percentages are used to describe statistical results. In each case, describe the meaning of the percentage.
A Category 4 hurricane has wind speeds of 130 to 156 mi/h and is twice as intense as a Category 2 hurricane with speeds of 96 to 110 mi/h.Levels of Measurement. For the data described in Exercises,
Find a recent news report that describes some mistake in a measured, estimated, or projected number (for example, a budget projection that turned out to be incorrect). In words, describe the size of
Find a recent news report in which percentages are used to express the change in a statistical result from one time to another (such as an increase in population or in the number of children who
Find a recent news report that describes some mistake in a measured, estimated, or projected number (for example, a budget projection that turned out to be incorrect). In words, describe the size of
On August 6, the temperature was 80 ° F in New York City, so it was twice as hot as on December 7, when the temperature was 40 ° F.Levels of Measurement. For the data described in Exercises,
Find a recent news article that causes you to question accuracy or precision. For example, the article might report a figure with more precision than you think is justified, or it might cite a figure
Using carbon dating, one sculpture is found to be 1000 years old while a second sculpture is found to be 500 years old, so the first sculpture is twice as old as the second.
When a male and female engage in speed dating, the female rates how much she likes the male by using a scale from 1 to 10. One female rates two different males as 8 and 4.Levels of Measurement. For
An actor given a salary of $2 million for a movie is twice as good as another actor given a salary of $1 million for the same movie.Levels of Measurement. For the data described in Exercises,
A person with an SAT score of 2200 is twice as qualified for college as a person with a score of 1100.Levels of Measurement. For the data described in Exercises, identify the level of measurement
Running times of winning horses in the annual Kentucky Derby raceComplete Classification. In Exercises, determine whether the data described are qualitative or quantitative and also identify their
The numbers 12, 74, 77, 76, 73, 78, 88, 19, 9 23, and 25 were sewn on the jerseys of the starting offense for the New Orleans Saints when they won a Super Bowl football game.Complete Classification.
The colors of plain M&M candiesComplete Classification. In Exercises, determine whether the data described are qualitative or quantitative and also identify their level of measurement. If the
Seniority of each agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation is based on the length of time that has passed since the agent was first hired.Complete Classification. In Exercises, determine whether
The Michelin tire company also rates restaurants, using 1 star, 2 stars, or 3 stars. Many other restaurants are deemed to have quality not good enough to earn any stars, and many others are not
Consumer Reports magazine lists a rating of “best buy,” “recommended,” or “not recommended” for each of several different computers.Complete Classification. In Exercises, determine
Use a ruler to measure the lengths of the two-dollar bills in Figure 3.29. Do the lengths accurately reflect the change in value? In what way is the graphic potentially misleading?Figure 3.29 1980 =
In a clinical trial of a new drug, subjects are placed in groups as follows: Subjects in Group 1 are each given a placebo containing none of the drug; subjects in Group 2 are each given 10-mg doses
Find a news report that describes some type of statistical study. Make a list of all the variables that were studied, and in each case identify the data type (qualitative/quantitative and
What is the distribution of data? Describe the important labels we should include when making a graph of a distribution?
What is a frequency table? How does it show categories and frequencies?
Briefly describe how each of the following can be used to show multiple data sets: a multiple bar graph, a multiple line chart, and a stack plot. When is the stack plot most useful?
Should the vertical scale on a graph showing changes in number (or percentage) with time always start from a value of zero? Why or why not?
Which types of graphs described in this section can be used for qualitative data? Give an example of a qualitative data set, and describe how you would show it with each type of graph.
What is a frequency table? How does it show categories and frequencies?
What are geographical data? Identify at least two ways to display geographical data.
What is an exponential scale, and when is such a scale useful?
Which type of graph described in this section would work best for depicting data consisting of one value from each of the past 50 consecutive years? What is a major advantage of this type of graph?
a. Use the result from Exercise 1a to construct a histogram for the weights of regular Pepsi.b. Use the result from Exercise 1b to construct a histogram for the weights of Diet Pepsi.c. Compare the
What do we mean by cumulative frequency?
What is a three-dimensional graphic? When is this type of graphic just cosmetic, and when is it helpful? What are its advantages and disadvantages?
Is it possible for a graph that shows percentage change to show descending bars (or a descending line) even when the variable of interest is increasing? Explain
USA Today reported these annual amounts spent in the United States for di®erent categories of sports equipment: fishing ($2.0 billion); hunting ($3.1billion); camping ($1.7 billion); golf ($2.5
What is the purpose of binning? Give an example for which binning is useful.
What is an infographic, and what is its goal?
I drew a map on which I scaled the lengths (from east to west) of different counties based on their numbers of family-owned farms, and found that a county with twice as many farms as another ended up
You are given a sample of data values along with specific bins. Your bar graph was marked wrong because it shows different frequencies than the ones shown on the teacher’s answer key.Does It Make
I made a frequency table with two columns, one-labeled State and one labeled State capital.
Figure 3.43 shows the numbers of U.S. adoptions from other countries in the years 2004 and 2015. What is wrong with this graph? Draw a graph that depicts the data in a fair and objective way. Number
Reasoning that barrels of oil are three-dimensional, a newspaper publishes a three-dimensional graph showing oil production (barrels) in five different yearsFor Exercises, determine whether the
I used an exponential scale because the data values for my categories ranged from 7 to 450,000,000.Does It Make Sense? For Exercises, determine whether the statement makes sense (or is clearly true)
Your pie chart must be wrong because you have the 45% frequency wedge near the upper left and the answer key shows it near the lower right.Does It Make Sense? For Exercises, determine whether the
The third category in my frequency table has a relative frequency of25%.
I used a contour map to show the ages of full-time students at my collegeFor Exercises, determine whether the statement makes sense (or is clearly true) or does not make sense (or is clearly false).
There’s been only a very slight rise in our stock price over the past few months, but I wanted to make it look dramatic so I¦ started the vertical scale from the lowest price rather than from
A graphic artist for a magazine depicts the populations of the 10 largest U.S. cities by using bars of different heights, with the bars positioned on the locations of the cities on a map of the
The rate of inflation in the 1970s was much higher than it is today, so prices today must be lower overall.Does It Make Sense? For Exercises, determine whether the statement makes sense (or is
I saw two frequency tables of airline passenger weights, one using bins that spanned 10-pound ranges (e.g., 101 to 110 pounds) and the second with bins that spanned 20-pound ranges (e.g., 101 to 120
The third category in my frequency e has a cumulative frequency of 150.
When constructing a histogram of blood platelet counts, it is better to use three-dimensional bars in the graph.For Exercises, determine whether the statement makes sense (or is clearly true) or does
Children living near a smelter in Texas were exposed to lead, and their IQ scores were subsequently measured. The following histogram was constructed from those IQ scores.Figure 3.11a. Estimate the
How many females are represented in the frequency table? How many categories are in the frequency table? Pulse rate (beats per minute) 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-99 100-109 Frequency 17 33 41 37 13 4
Weekly instruction time for a school student in the United States is 22.2 hours compared to 26.9 hours in China. Is the difference meaningful? How could a graph be constructed so that the difference
The stacked plot in Figure 3.20 shows the numbers of higher education students enrolled in public and private colleges. The last few bars are projections from the U.S. National Center for Education
In a survey conducted by Kelton Research, 1004 adults were asked to identify the sounds that they find most annoying. In response, 279 chose jackhammers, 388 chose car alarms, 128 chose barking dogs,
Suppose you have a list of blood platelet counts from 500 patients in a hospital. Which of the following is most helpful in understanding the distribution of those values: frequency table, pie chart,
The graph in Figure 3.21 shows home prices in different regions of the United States.a. Describe general trends that apply to the home price data for all regions.b. Describe any differences that you
List the relative frequencies that correspond to the given frequencies.
A newspaper used images of cigarettes of different sizes to depict the percentages of adults who smoke in 2000 and in 2017. Which graphic would depict these data more objectively: a bar graph or
19. Loaded Die. An experiment was conducted in which a hole was drilled in a die and filled in with lead. The die was then rolled repeatedly, giving the results shown in the following frequency
List the relative frequencies that correspond to the given frequencies.Pulse Rates of Females. In Exercises, refer to the following frequency table of pulse rates of a sample of females. Pulse rate
Consider the display in Figure 3.22 of median salaries of males and females in recent years.a. What general trends does the graph convey?b. Redraw the graph as a multiple line graph (with two lines).
To show how sugar production doubled from 1990 to now, an illustrator draws two sugar cubes. The first cube is drawn with a length of 1 cm on each side, and the second cube is drawn with a length of
Figure 3.36 on the next page depicts the annual high values of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) for stocks. How is this graph misleading? How could it be drawn so that it is not misleading? In
8. Bins. I saw two frequency tables of airline passenger weights, one using bins that spanned 10-pound ranges (e.g. 101 to 110 nounds) and the second with bins that spanned 20-pound 109 of 449 I to
The stack plot in Figure 3.25 shows the numbers of bachelor’s degrees awarded to males and females since 1970. The last few years are projections.a. Estimate the numbers of bachelor’s degrees to
The graph in Figure 3.23 depicts U.S. marriage and divorce rates for selected years. The marriage rates are depicted by the blue bars, and the divorce rates are depicted by the maroon bars. The rates
Figure 3.37 depicts the amounts of daily oil consumption (in millions of barrels) in the United States and Japan. Does the illustration accurately depict the data? Why or why not? Daily Oil
Exercise 17 in Section 3.1 required the construction of a frequency table for the ages of Academy Award-winning male actors at the time when they won the award. Use that frequency table to construct
Refer to Figure 3.37 in Exercise 15 and construct a bar chart to depict the same data in a way that is fair and objective.Figure 3.37Exercise 15 Figure 3.37 depicts the amounts of daily oil
Exercise 18 in Section 3.1 required the construction of a frequency table for a list of body temperatures(in °F) of randomly selected subjects. Use that frequency table to construct the
A survey was conducted to determine how employees found their jobs. The table below lists the successful methods identified by 400 randomly selected employees. The data are based on results from the
The pie charts in Figure 3.38 give the percentages of Americans in three age categories in 1990 and 2050 (projected).a. Consider the 1990 age distribution. The actual percentages for the three
Contour Map. For Exercises, refer to the contour map in Figure 3.27. Assume that points A and B correspond to summits, and that the contour lines have 40-foot intervals.a. If you walk from A to C, do
The following data show the ages of all Academy Award-winning male actors at the time when they won the award (through 2016). Construct a frequency table for the data, using bins of 20–29, 30–39,
In 1965, Intel cofounder Gordon Moore initiated what has since become known as Moore’s law: The number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits will double approximately every 18
Refer to the data given in Exercise 17, and construct a pie chart. Compare the pie chart to the Pareto chart. Can you determine which graph is more effective in showing the relative usefulness of the
The following data show the body temperatures (in °F) of randomly selected subjects who were notill at the time. Construct a frequency table with seven bins:96.9–97.2, 97.3–97.6, 97.7–98.0,
a. Is the elevation change more from B to D or from D to F?b. What is the elevation change if you walk from A to C¦to D to A?Contour Map. For Exercises, refer to the contour map in Figure 3.27.
The graph in Figure 3.39 shows the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over recent years. In what year (of the years displayed) was the change in the CPI the greatest? What happened
a. About what percentage of the population was over age 65 in 2010?b. About what percentage of the population is projected to be over age 65 in 2050?c. Describe the projected change in the 45–54
An experiment was conducted in which a hole was drilled in a die and filled in with lead. The die was then rolled repeatedly, giving the results shown in the following frequency table.a. How many
The graph in Figure 3.40 on the next page shows data regarding the relative risk of schizophrenia among people born in different months.a. Note that the scale of the vertical axis does not start at
a. In about what year did (will) the population of 45- to 54-year-olds peak as a percentage of the population?b. In about what year did (will) the population of over 65-year-olds peak as a percentage
Construct a Pareto chart of the data given in Exercise 19. Compare the Pareto chart to the pie chart. Which graph is more effective in showing the relative importance of the mistakes made by job
The graph in Figure 3.41 shows the federal minimum wage in the United States, together with its purchasing power, which is adjusted for inflation, with 1996 used as the reference year. The graph
Refer to the QWERTY data in Exercise 21 in Section 3.1 and construct a dot plot.Exercise 21The traditional keyboard configuration is called a Qwerty keyboard because of the positioning of the letters
Weighted Mean. In Exercises, find the mean of the data summarized in the frequency table by using the middle of each bin and the frequency for each bin. Also, compare the computed means to these the
Weighted Mean. In Exercises, find the mean of the data summarized in the frequency table by using the middle of each bin and the frequency for each bin. Also, compare the computed means to these the
What is the standard score (z-score) corresponding to the pulse rate of 53 bpm for an adult male?Pulse Rates. In Exercises, assume that pulse rates of adult males are normally distributed with a mean
The distribution of the weights of all adult elephants in Kenya is a normal distribution.Does It Make Sense? For Exercises, determine whether the statement makes sense (or is clearly true) or does
My good grades are a result of the fact that the number of hours I study each week put me in the 90th percentile for study time.Does It Make Sense? For Exercises, determine whether the statement

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