Workshop Statistics: Discovery with Data, Fourth Edition

TOPIC 10

More Summary Measures and Graphs

Now that you have learned the basics of summarizing and analyzing data, you will apply these techniques to an interesting variety of questions in this topic. For example, do sparrow deaths from a severe winter storm provide evidence for Darwin's theory of natural selection? Do steel roller coasters tend to go faster than wooden ones? Which brands of ice cream contain the most calories per serving? In this topic, you will investigate these questions and learn some new numerical and graphical summaries.

Overview

In the previous two topics, you studied numerical measures of the center and then of the spread of a distribution. In this topic, you will combine center and spread, as you work with the five-number summary, which conveys information about both. This summary will lead you to another visual display called a boxplot, which provides a useful way for comparing distributions, as well as a method for identifying outliers. You will also gain more experience using technology to analyze data and make comparisons.

Preliminaries

1. Would you expect larger or smaller sparrows to be more likely to survive a severe winter storm, or do you think that a sparrow's size is not related to its ability to survive? (Activity 10-1)
2. How many calories would you expect to find in a one-half cup serving of really good ice cream? (Activity 10-3)
3. Guess how much it cost for a family of four to attend a major-league baseball (MLB) game in 2009. (Activity 10-4)