Exam 1: Introduction to Statistics

Sue Taylor,Director of Global Industrial Sales,is concerned by a deteriorating sales trend.Specifically,the number of industrial customers is stable at 1,500,but they are purchasing less each year.She orders her staff to search for causes of the downward trend by surveying all 1,500 industrial customers.One question on the survey asked the customers: "How many people does your company employ? The measurement level for this question is ___.

A business is attempting to find the best small town in Canada in which to relocate.As part of the investigation,the elevations of all small towns in Canada are researched.Some towns are located high in the Rockies with elevations over 2,000 metres.There are even some towns located in the Maritimes with elevations below sea level.These elevations can best be described as which level of data?

Which types of data are normally used in parametric statistics?

Sue Taylor,Director of Global Industrial Sales,is concerned by a deteriorating sales trend.Specifically,the number of industrial customers is stable at 1,500,but they are purchasing less each year.She orders her staff to search for causes of the downward trend by surveying all 1,500 industrial customers.One question on the survey asked the customers: "Which of the following best describes your primary business: a.manufacturing,b.wholesaler,c.retail,d.service." The measurement level for this question is ___.

The Magnolia Swimming Pool Company wants to determine the average number of years it takes before a major repair is required on one of the pools that the company constructs.The president of the company asks Rick Johnson,a company accountant,to randomly contact fifty families that built Magnolia pools in the past ten years and determine how long it was in each case until a major repair.The information will then be used to estimate the average number of years until a major repair for all pools sold by Magnolia.The average based on the data gathered from the fifty families can best be described as a ___.

Virtually all areas of business use statistics in decision making.

A new sales person is paid a commission on each sale.This person made $2,000 his first month on the job.From this he concludes that he will make $24,000 during his first year.This is an example of ___.

Morningstar Mutual Funds analyzes the risk and performance of mutual funds.Each mutual fund is assigned an overall rating of one to five stars.One star is the lowest rating,and five stars is the highest rating.This level of measurement is ___.

A question in a survey of microcomputer users asked: "Which operating system do you use most often: a.Apple OS 7,b.MS Windows Vista,c.MS Windows XP,d.UNIX." The measurement level for this question is ___.

Define statistics and list example applications of statistics in business.

Define important statistical terms,including population,sample,and parameter,as they relate to descriptive and inferential statistics.

A statistics instructor collects information about the background of his students.About 30% of the students have taken economics and about 40% have taken accounting.There are 23 male students and 27 female students in this class.This is an example of ___.

A descriptive measure of the population is called a parameter.

Grades on a test range from 0 to 100.This level of data is ___.

Statistics is commonly divided into two branches called descriptive statistics and summary statistics.

The manner in which numerical data can be analyzed statistically depends on the level of data measurement represented by numbers being analyzed.

Nominal and ordinal data are sometimes referred to as quantitative data.

A researcher wants to know what the average variation is in altimeters of small,privately owned airplanes.The task of determining this is expensive and time-consuming,if even possible,given the large number of such airplanes.The researcher decides to use government records to randomly locate the owners of ten such planes and then get permission to test the altimeters.When the researcher is done,he will use the data gathered from the group of ten to reach conclusions about all small,privately owned airplanes.This process can best be described as ___.

Manuel Banales,Marketing Director of Plano Power Plants,Inc.'s Electrical Division,is directing a study to identify and assess the relative importance of product features.Manuel directs his staff to design a survey questionnaire for distribution to 100 of Plano's 954 customers.For this study,the set of 100 customers is ___.

A researcher wants to know what the average variation is in altimeters of small,privately owned airplanes.The task of determining this is expensive and time-consuming,if even possible,given the large number of such airplanes.The researcher decides to use government records to randomly locate the owners of ten such planes and then get permission to test the altimeters.When the researcher is done,he will use the data gathered from the group of ten to reach conclusions about all small,privately owned airplanes.The average variation computed using the data gathered on the group of ten airplanes is best described as a ___.