Soda Analysis: Coca Cola Co vs. Pepsi Co.

By: Alejandra Zepeda

Abstract: The experiment was conducted in attempt to obtaining information about the distribution of soda liquid in 12oz soda cans. The motivation behind this experiment is to nd out if the Coca Cola Company or if the Pepsi Company did a fair job of lling their soda cans with 12oz. These companies claim to sell 12oz cans of soda to the public. We collected data from Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, Coke Zero soda cans to conduct our experiment. Our experiment consisted of a population sample of 15 soda cans from each population. The variable we measured was the weight of the samples. The study consist of ratio scale data and a continuous variable. We did several tests and assumptions to make sure our data gave us the best results. From our results we found out that the Diet Pepsi Company was under lling their Diet Pepsi soda cans. Introduction: A problem emerged when several Diet Pepsi consumers complained about the lling of their soda cans. Many of those consumers were opening Diet Pepsi cans that were half full. This experiment was made to nd out if this was true and to compare data with Coca Cola soda cans too. The variable we measured is the weight of the cans in grams. In the experiment we will be using new technology to nd condence intervals, distributions, and hypothesis tests. We hypothesized that the Pepsi Company was under lling their soda cans and that the Coca Cola Company does a better job at lling their cans with 12oz. Methods: The data was collected from populations of 96 Diet Pepsi cans, 72 Coke Zero cans, and 85 Diet Coke cans. Each can was numbered from 1 to the total size of each population. The sample of 15 was obtained through randomization. It was used to reduce bias by implementing the simple random sample technique. This technique is known to be reliable for giving an appropriate randomized sample of a population. In fact, the simple random sample technique is best indicated for this type of data collection because every possible sample of size n in the population has equal probability of being chosen. The sample of 15 was obtained using an Apple application called Tc-stats. This application was used to generate all the data analysis such as summary statistics, hypothesis tests, histograms,normal plots, and t and f distributions. After the samples were chosen we picked out the cans and weighted them. In this case, an electric scale was used to measure the weight of each can in grams. We wrote down the weight in a data set and saved it on Tc- stats. We kept the devices constant for each measurement. Consider that there

is a chance of error due to the measurement process because the weight scale was not completely stable at all times during the measurement of each can. In Tc-stats we were able to identify if the distributions of each sample population are normal to begin with. The normal plot for each population sample is in the appendix. The normal plot for the Diet Coke is found in appendix A, Coke Zero is in appendix B, and Diet Pepsi's normal plot is in appendix C. The data for Coke Zero showed to be normally distributed. The data of Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi are not shown to be normal distributions because there are some data points away from the line. Some of these outliers are making the population distribution heavy-tailed and skewed to the left. With this information we are able to construct condence intervals for each sample. We did a one sample sign test for Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi because the distributions violated the assumptions of a normal distribution. The signicance level for all the samples was .05. Then we proceeded with a Kruskal Wallis hypothesis test. Results: Below are inferences about each sample population. The total weight of the Diet Coke sample averaged to 372.864 grams or 13.1523 ounces. There was a 1.334 standard deviation in the data's variability(Fig. 1). Figure 2 is a pictorial representation of the data. The data for the Diet Coke sample is skewed left (Fig. 2) so preferably we consider the statistic median, which is 373.19 grams or 13.1638 ounces. Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Moving on to the second sample, the weight of Coke Zero had an averaged weight of 371.9173 grams or 13.119 ounces. It's variability is measured with a standard deviation of 1.9747 (Fig. 3).

The distribution of the data seems to be mount shape (Fig. 4). Because of the shape of the distribution the appropriate point estimate for data analysis is the mean. Figure 3:

Figure 4:

The third sample is from the Diet Coke data. This sample data totaled to an average weight of 369.15 grams or 13.0213 ounces. From the mean, there was a 1.334 standard deviation calculating it's variability (Fig, 5) The distribution is also skewed left like the Diet Pepsi data, so the appropriate point estimate is the statistic median (Fig. 6). Figure 5:

Figure 6:

Based on the data we are 96.5% sure that the true median of Diet Coke is between 370.8237 grams and 373.0109 grams based on the sign test for median. We are 95% sure that the true mean of Coke Zero is between 371.0900 grams and 374.8500 grams. Also, for Diet Pepsi we are 96.5% sure that the true median is between 367.7500 grams and 370.2900 grams also based on the sign test. When we compare the statistical signicance of these numbers we know that Diet Pepsi's condence intervals do not overlap with Coke Zero and Diet Coke. Therefore the prevalence estimates are signicantly different. In the other hand, Coke Zero and Diet Coke do have overlapping condence intervals. Therefore the prevalence are deemed to not be signicantly different. Based on the sign tests we can say that there is enough evidence to say that the weight of Diet Pepsi cans weighted under 12oz. For Diet Coke and Coke Zero there is insufcient evidence to say the cans are being under lled. To conrm this a Kruskal Wallis hypothesis test says that there is at least one population sample that is different and by looking at the data we can see that Diet Pepsi's data is the one. Discussion: We already know that Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero cans are labeled to weight 12oz. But from our results we found that the Pepsi Company is under lling Diet Coke soda cans. This means that some cans are not being lled at exactly 12oz but instead under 12oz. Our hypothesis was right according to our results. We also understood that there was insufcient evidence to suggest that the samples from the Coca Cola Company are under lling their Diet Coke and Coke Zero soda cans. We can assume that the Coca Cola Company and Pepsi Company are lling each Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero 12oz more or less, but not exactly. The true mean (12 ounces) that comes off the production line is really unknown. It may change each and every time another can of Coke or Pepsi is lled. Conclusion: The 12oz label is really Coca Cola and Pepsi's hypothesized mean of the population. It is in theory that the liquid inside the can measures exactly 12 ounces. This data is important because we can nd out if companies are being efcient. It is crucial for large companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi to be wasting product by overlling their cans or under lling. Because either way, if a company over lls some cans then other cans are not being lled either. This data implies that Pepsi Co is not being as efcient as it could be because some of their Diet Pepsi cans are being under lled.

Appendix: Appendix A: Diet Coke Appendix B: Coke Zero

Appendix C: Diet Pepsi

The conversion of grams to ounces: grams 28.3495 = ounces Kruskal Wallis hypothesis test: null hypothesis: cz = dc = dp alternative hypothesis: at least one is (subscript cz is coke zero, dc is diet coke, and dp is diet pepsi)

Raw Data:
Weight/Diet Coke Grams 373.77 371.09 375.34 374.99 372.09 371.77 374.85 367.92 373.68 373.19 371.13 371.65 375.33 375.35 370.81 Weight/Coke Zero Grams 368.46 370.87 373.21 371.71 369.94 373.6 370.38 372.57 370.04 372.25 369.32 374.06 374.53 374.44 373.38 Weight/Diet Pepsi Grams 367.75 368.7 370.53 368.9 370.67 369.5 369.74 370.29 370.34 368.89 370.57 368.61 366.5 366.75 369.51

Bibliography: Pictures for cover page were taken from: Diet Coke http://www.freelogovector.com/key-diet_coke_clipart.html Diet Pepsi http://logos.wikia.com/wiki/Diet_Pepsi Coke Zero http://www.cokecce.co.uk/products/refreshments/coca-cola-zero.aspx