Project 12.1

"You can clearly see that Bufferin is the most effective ... " "Penzoil is better suited ... " "Sylvania was preferred by ... ." "How can anyone analyze the claims of the commercials we see and hear on a daily basis?" asked Betty. "I even subscribe to Consumer Reports, but so many of the claims seem to be unreasonable. I don't like to buy items by trial and error, and I really don't believe all the claims in advertisements." Collect examples of good statistical graphs and examples of misleading graphs. Use some of the leading newspapers and national magazines, or websites:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/ssbr.html
http://www.fedstats.gov
http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww/default.htm
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html

Project 12.2

Carry out the following experiment: A cat has two bowls of food, one bowl contains Whiskas and the other some other brand. The cat eats Whiskas and leaves the other untouched. Make a list of possible reasons why the cat ignored the second bowl. Describe the circumstances under which you think the advertiser could claim: Eight out of ten owners said their cat preferred Whiskas.

Project 12.3

If you roll a pair of dice 36 times, the expected number of times for rolling each of the numbers is given in the accompanying table. A graph of these data is shown.

a. Find the mean, the variance, and the standard deviation for this model.


b. Roll a pair of dice 36 times. Construct a table and a graph similar to the ones shown in Figure 10. Find the mean, the variance, and the standard deviation for your experiment.

c. Compare the results of parts a and b. If this is a class problem, you might wish to pool from the entire class data before making the comparison.

Project 12.4

Prepare a report or exhibit showing how statistics are used in baseball.

Project 12.5

Prepare a report or exhibit showing how statistics are used in educational testing.

Project 12.6

Prepare a report or exhibit showing how statistics are used in psychology.

Project 12.7

Prepare a report or exhibit showing how statistics are used in business. Use a daily report of transactions on the New York Stock Exchange. What inferences can you make from the information reported?

Project 12.8

Investigate the work of Adolph Quetelet, Francis Galton, Karl Pearson, R. A. Fisher, and Florence Nightingale. Prepare a report or an exhibit of their work in statistics.

Project 12.9

"We need privacy and a consistent wind," said Wilbur. "Did you write to the Weather Bureau to find a suitable location?"
"Well," replied Orville, "I received this list of possible locations and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, looks like just what we want. Look at this . . ."
However, Orville and Wilbur spent many days waiting in frustration after they arrived in Kitty Hawk, because the winds weren't suitable. The Weather Bureau's information gave the averages, but the Wright brothers didn't realize that an acceptable average can be produced by unacceptable extremes.
Write a paper explaining how it is possible to have an acceptable average produced by unacceptable extremes.

Project 12.10

Select something that you think might be normally distributed (for example, the ring size of students at your college). Next, select 100 people and make the appropriate measurements (in this example, ring size). Calculate the mean and standard deviation. Illustrate your finding using a bar graph. Do your data appear to be normally distributed?

Project 12.11