Exam 1: Statistics, Data, and Statistical Thinking

Parking at a large university has become a very big problem. University administrators are interested in determining the average parking time (e.g. the time it takes a student to find a parking spot) of its students. An administrator inconspicuously followed 250 students and carefully recorded their parking times. What type of variable is the administration interested in collecting?

An usher records the number of unoccupied seats in a movie theater during each viewing of a film. Identify the type of data collected.

A quality inspector tested 76 copiers in an attempt to estimate the average failure rate of the copier model. His study indicated that the number of failures decreased from two years ago, indicating an increase in the reliability of the copiers. Describe the variable of interest to the inspector.

A university was interested in student reaction to a proposal to spend more on athletic scholarships and less on academic scholarships. 35 student athletes were surveyed. What type of problem has Occurred?

What is statistics?

What is the most common way to satisfy the representative sample requirement?

Statistics involves two different processes, describing sets of data and drawing conclusions about the sets of data on the basis of sampling.

A study in the state of Georgia was conducted to determine the percentage of all community college students who have taken at least one online class. 1500 community college students were Contacted and asked if they had taken at least one online class during their time at their community College. These responses were then used to estimate the percentage of all community college Students who have taken at least one online class. Identify the variable of interest in this study.

Parking at a university has become a problem. University administrators are interested in determining the average time it takes a student to find a parking spot. An administrator inconspicuously followed 200 students and recorded how long it took each of them to find a parking spot. Identify the variable of interest to the university administration.

A student completing a research project for a criminal justice class obtained a radar gun for determining automobile speeds and recorded the speeds of automobiles passing a fixed location over a period of several hours. The student was unaware that the device needed to be recharged after two hours of use and that the speeds recorded after two hours were not reliable. What type of problem has occurred?

The amount of television viewed by today's youth is of primary concern to Parents Against Watching Television (PAWT). 250 parents of elementary school-aged children were asked to estimate the number of hours per week that their child watches television. Identify the type of data collected by PAWT.

A study in the state of Georgia was conducted to determine the percentage of all community college students who have taken at least one online class. 1500 community college students were Contacted and asked if they had taken at least one online class during their time at their community College. These responses were then used to estimate the percentage of all community college Students who have taken at least one online class. What type of variable is being collected?

A county planning commission is attempted to survey 1500 households from the counties 400,000 households. A random sample was selected and surveys were mailed to the randomly selected households, but only 1075 were returned. The inability to collect data from the 425 households that didn't return the survey would be considered which type of sampling problem?

As part of an economics class project, students were asked to randomly select 500 New Your Stock Exchange (NYSE) stocks from the Wall Street Journal. As part of the project, students were asked to summarize the current prices (also referred to as the closing price of the stock for a particular trading date) of the collected stocks using graphical and numerical techniques. Identify the variable of interest for this study.

When we take data obtained from a sample and make generalizations or predictions about the entire population, we are utilizing inferential statistics.

Parking at a large university has become a very big problem. University administrators are interested in determining the average parking time (e.g. the time it takes a student to find a parking spot) of its students. An administrator inconspicuously followed 250 students and carefully recorded their parking times. The university is interested in using the information from the sample of 250 students collected to learn information about the entire student parking population. Would this be an application of descriptive or inferential statistics?

As part of an economics class project, students were asked to randomly select 500 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) stocks from the Wall Street Journal. As part of the project, students were asked to summarize the current prices (also referred to as the closing price of the stock for a particular trading date) of the collected stocks using graphical and numerical techniques. What type of variable is being collected?

As part of an economics class project, students were asked to randomly select 500 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) stocks from the Wall Street Journal. As part of the project, students were asked to summarize the current prices (also referred to as the closing price of the stock for a particular trading date) of the collected stocks using graphical and numerical techniques. Would this be an application of descriptive or inferential statistics?

Define statistical thinking.

Give an example of unethical statistical practice.