For Exercises 1.1 to 1.3, see page 3; for 1.4, see page 5; and for 1.5, see page 6.
1.6 Summer jobs.
You are collecting information about summer jobs that are available for college students in your area. Describe a data set that you could use to organize the information that you collect.
1.7 Employee application data.
The personnel department keeps records on all employees in a company. Here is the information kept in one of the data files: employee identification number, last name, first name, middle initial, department, number of years with the company, salary, education (coded as high school, some college, or college degree), and age.
1.7
(a) The cases are employees. (b) Employee identification number—label, last name—label, first name—label, middle initial—label, department—categorical, number of years—quantitative, salary—quantitative, education—categorical, age—quantitative. (c) Sample data would vary.
7
1.8 Where should you locate your business?
You are interested in choosing a new location for your business. Create a list of criteria that you would use to rank cities. Include at least six variables, and give reasons for your choices. Will you use a label? Classify each variable as quantitative or categorical.
1.9 Survey of customers.
A survey of customers of a restaurant near your campus wanted opinions regarding the following variables: (a) quality of the restaurant; (b) portion size; (c) overall satisfaction with the restaurant; (d) respondent’s age; (e) whether the respondent is a college student; (f) whether the respondent ate there at least once a week. Responses for items (a), (b), and (c) are given a scale of 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). Classify each of these variables as categorical or quantitative, and give reasons for your answers.
1.9
(a) Quantitative. (b) Quantitative. (c) Quantitative. (d) Quantitative. (e) Categorical. (f) Categorical. For all quantitative variables, numerical summaries would be meaningful; for categorical variables, numerical summaries are not meaningful.
1.10 Your survey of customers.
Refer to the previous exercise. Make up your own customer survey with at least six questions. Include at least two categorical variables and at least two quantitative variables. Tell which variables are categorical and which are quantitative. Give reasons for your answers.
1.11 Study habits of students.
You are planning a survey to collect information about the study habits of college students. Describe two categorical variables and two quantitative variables that you might measure for each student. Give the units of measurement for the quantitative variables.
1.11
Answers will vary. 1. How many hours per week do you study—quantitative, hours 2. How many nights per week do you study usually—quantitative, number 3. Do you usually study alone or with others—categorical 4. Do you feel like you study too much, about right, not enough—categorical.
1.12 How would you rate colleges?
Popular magazines rank colleges and universities on their “academic quality” in serving undergraduate students. Describe five variables that you would like to see measured for each college if you were choosing where to study. Give reasons for each of your choices.
1.13 Attending college in your state or in another state.
The U.S. Census Bureau collects a large amount of information concerning higher education.1 For example, the bureau provides a table that includes the following variables: state, number of students from the state who attend college, and number of students who attend college in their home state.
1.13
(a) The states are the cases. (b) The name of the state is the label variable. (c) Number of students from the state who attend college—quantitative, number of students who attend college in their home state—quantitative. (d) Answers will vary. This would tell you which states have large percentages of students that like to stay “at home” versus small percentages which indicate students’ preference to leave home to attend college.
1.14 Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities.
A report on drunk-driving fatalities in the United States gives the number of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities for each state.2 Discuss at least two different ways that these numbers could be converted to rates. Give the advantages and disadvantages of each.