STATISTICS

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1. According to Nielsen Media Research, Americans watch television an average
of 6.98 hours per day. If the average reported is the mean and the times are
Normally distributed with a standard deviation of 3.80 hours, then what percentage
of Americans watch television for more than 8 hours per day?














( ) ( ) or 8 24 8, 24, 6.98, 3.8 0.3942 p P x normalcdf t = s s = ~ (rounded to four decimal places by choice)

Answer: Approximately 39.4% of Americans watch television for more than 8 hours per day.


2. Avoiding an accident when driving can depend on reaction time. That time, measured from the moment
a driver sees the danger until he/she gets his/her foot on the brake pedal, is Normally distributed with a
mean of 1.5 seconds and a standard deviation of 0.18 seconds. What is the Interquartile Range of the
reaction times? Report your answer to the nearest hundredth of a second.











3 1
IQR Q Q = , the range of the middle 50%
( ) ( ) 0.75, 1.5, 0.18 0.25, 1.5, 0.18 invNorm invNorm =
1.62141 1.37859 ~
0.24 ~ (rounding to the nearest hundredth of a second, as instructed)
Answer: 0.24 IQR ~ seconds
6.98 8
10.78
x
daily hours of tv
viewing
x
1.5




braking time
(seconds)


3. USA Today recently reported in the Snapshot

MysteryoftheRemotethat
44% of the families surveyed never misplaced the family television remote
control, while 38% misplaced it one to five times weekly, and 17% misplaced
it more than five times weekly. One percent of the families surveyeddidntknow.

After reading the USA Today mentioned above, Sarah decides to see how many King County families
in December 2008 misplaced the family television remote control. Due to fact that Sarah lacked the
funds necessary to conduct such a large survey, Sarah sampled only a portion of the families currently
residing in King County.

Letting x representthenumberoftimesperweekthatthefamilystelevisionremotecontrolgot
misplaced and letting f represent the frequency or the number of times that value of x was observed,
Sarah obtained the data shown in the following table.

x 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
f 220 92 38 21 24 30 34 20 16 5


Address parts (a) (e) below.


(a) Carefully describe the population that Sarah was trying to learn more about. Use a complete English
sentence.

Answer: Sarah is interested in ALL King County families.

NOTE:Nomentionshouldbemadehereastowhethertheyhavemisplacedthefamilysremote
controlornotsincewhethertheyvemisplacedthefamilytelevisionsremoteisthe
categorical variable in this scenario.


(b) Determine the mean, median, mode, and standard deviation for Sarah's sample. Be sure to report each
of these statistics to the appropriate number of decimal places.

Entering the 220 92 38 21 24 30 34 20 16 5 500 n f = = + + + + + + + + + =

data value, then using the

1-VarStats L
1
, L
2
function, and reporting each of the statistics to the nearest tenth since this
corresponds to one more digit beyond the decimal point than the original data ( x values) are given in.

NOTE: Since this is data collected on a sample, the standard deviation is s, not o .


Answers:
Mean, 2.0
Median, 1.0
Mode 0.0
Standard Deviation 2.5
x
x
=
=
=
=




The units of measurement for all four
of these statisticsaretimesperweek.


(c) Construct a histogram for the data in Sarah's sample (please provide a scale for both the horizontal axis
aswellasforthebarsheights).IstheNormalcurveanappropriatemathematicalmodelforthishistogram?
Explain.

Answer:














Since this distribution is extremely skewed right, and is NOT bell-shaped, then
the Normal curve is NOT an appropriate mathematical model for this histogram.



(d) WhatpercentageofSarah'ssamplemisplacedthefamilytelevisionsremotecontrolatleastonetime,but
no more than five times, per week? Justify your answer.

( )
92 38 21 24 30 205
1 5 41.0%
500 500
p P x
+ + + +
= s s = = =
NOTE: This statistic has been rounded to one more digit after the decimal point that the raw data was
recorded in as per The Rounding Rule For Statistics.

Answer: 41.0% of the 500 King County families sampled misplaced the family television remote
control one to five times weekly.


(e) What percentage of Sarah's sample data is within two standard deviations of the sample mean? Justify your
answer.
WARNING: This sample's distribution is NOT approximately Normal (it is skewed right see the graph in
part c) and so it does NOT obey the 68-95-99.7 Rule (otherwise known as the Empirical
Rule). Furthermore,youcouldnotuseyourcalcuatorsnormalcdf or invNorm functions.

From part (b), 2.0 x = and 2.5 s = .
Thus, 2 2.0 2(2.5) 2.0 5.0 3.0 x s = = = and 2 2.0 2(2.5) 2.0 5.0 7.0 x s + = + = + = .

Thus, ( )
220 92 38 21 24 30 34 20 479
3.0 7.0 .958
500 500
p P x
+ + + + + + +
= s s = = = = 95.8%

Answer: 95.8% of the sample data is within two standard deviations of the mean.
Distribution of Misplaced Remote Controls
Times Per Week

34
20
16
5
220
92
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9
38
21
24
30
x



4. A histogram of data collected on a quantitative
variable amongst a sample of American adults
is shown here. Sketch a graph of a boxplot
of this same (unknown) data set.






Answer:






5. A researcher at the University of Washington is interested in the average age at which American infants
begin to crawl. The researcher asks the full-time guardians of the 50 infants born at the University of
Washington Medical Center last month to observe the infants and record the date that the infant starts to
crawl. The medical researcher then determines the age (in weeks) at which each infant began crawling, and
he subsequently computes the mean of those fifty values to be 33.2 weeks. Use a complete English sentence
to address parts (a) (c).

(a) Carefully describe the population of interest to the medical researcher.

Answer: The population of interest to the medical researcher is all American infants.


(b) What is the parameter of interest to the medical researcher?

The parameter (i.e. the calculated value on the entire population) of interest to the medical researcher is
the average age (presumably the mean age) that American infants begin to crawl.

NOTE: The variable of interest in the particular scenario is the age at which an infant begins to crawl; it
is a numerical variable.

Answer: The parameter of interest to the medical researcher is the average age that American infants
begin to crawl.


(c) What symbol should be used for the value 33.2 weeks? Why?

Thevalue33.2weeksrepresentsthemeanofthesampledata(itsthemeanage,inweeks,thatthefifty
infants sampled start to crawl); it is a statistic and the symbols is x .

Answer: x