Boot Camp_Statistics (Exercises)

Session 1 (Solutions: texts are in blue color and formulas are in yellow color)
Chapter 1: Data and Statistics
Question 1 (Question 2) [Revised in MindTap]

a. How many elements are in this data set?

The ten elements are the ten tablet computers
b. How many variables are in this data set?
5 variables: Cost ($), Operating System, Display Size (inches), Battery Life (hours), CPU
Manufacturer
c. Which variables are categorical and which variables are quantitative?
Categorical variables: Operating System and CPU Manufacturer
Quantitative variables: Cost ($), Display Size (inches), and Battery Life (hours)

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 d. What type of measurement scale is used for each of the variables?

Variable Measurement
Scale
Cost ($) Ratio
Operating System Nominal
Display Size (inches) Ratio
Battery Life (hours) Ratio
CPU Manufacturer Nominal

Question 2 (Question 14)

The following data show the number of rental cars in service for three rental car companies:
Hertz, Avis, and Dollar. The data are for the years 2007–2010 and are in thousands of vehicles
(Auto Rental News website, May 15, 2011).

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a. Construct a time series graph for the years 2007 to 2010 showing the number of rental cars
in service for each company. Show the time series for all three companies on the same
graph.
The graph of the time series follows:

350

300
Cars in Service (1000s)

250

200
Hertz
150
Dollar
100 Avis

50

0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Year

b. Comment on who appears to be the market share leader and how the market shares are
changing over time.

In 2007 and 2008 Hertz was the clear market share leader. In 2009 and 2010 Hertz and
Avis have approximately the same market share. The market share for Dollar appears to be
declining.

c. Construct a bar chart showing rental cars in service for 2010. Is this chart based on cross-
sectional or time series data?
The bar chart for 2010 is shown below.

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 350

Cars in Service (1000s) 300

250

200

150

100

50

0
Hertz Dollar Avis
Company

This chart is based on cross-sectional data.

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Chapter 3: Descriptive Statistics: Numerical Measures
Chapter 3A
Question 1 (Question 7)

The average number of minutes Americans commute to work is 27.7 minutes (Sterling’s
Best Places, April 13, 2012). The average commute time in minutes for 48 cities are as
follows:

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a. What is the mean commute time for these 48 cities?

The mean commute time is 26.9 minutes.

b. Compute the median commute time.
The median commute time is 25.95 minutes.
c. Compute the mode.
The data are bimodal. The modes are 23.4 and 24.8.

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 d. Compute the third quartile.
p 75
L75 = (n +1) = (48 +1) = 36.75
100 100

75th percentile = 28.5 + .75(28.5 ̶ 28.5) = 28.5

Question 2 Question 29

The Los Angeles Times regularly reports the air quality index for various areas of Southern
California. A sample of air quality index values for Pomona provided the following data: 28, 42,
58, 48, 45, 55, 60, 49, and 50.

a. Compute the range and interquartile range.

Range = 60 – 28 = 32

IQR = Q3 – Q1 = 56.5 – 43.5 = 13

b. Compute the sample variance and sample standard deviation.

435
x= = 48.33
9

(xi − x )2 = 742

(x i − x)2 742

s2 = = = 92.75
n −1 8

s = 92.75 = 9.63

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c. A sample of air quality index readings for Anaheim provided a sample mean of 48.5, a
sample variance of 136, and a sample standard deviation of 11.66. What comparisons can
you make between the air quality in Pomona and that in Anaheim on the basis of these
descriptive statistics?
The average air quality is about the same. But, the variability is greater in Anaheim.

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Chapter 3B
Case Problem 1 Pelican Stores

Pelican Stores, a division of National Clothing, is a chain of women’s apparel stores

operating throughout the country. The chain recently ran a promotion in which discount
coupons were sent to customers of other National Clothing stores. Data collected for a
sample of 100 instore credit card transactions at Pelican Stores during one day while the
promotion was running are contained in the file named PelicanStores. Table 3.9 shows a
portion of the data set. The proprietary card method of payment refers to charges made
using a National Clothing charge card. Customers who made a purchase using a discount
coupon are referred to as promotional customers and customers who made a purchase but
did not use a discount coupon are referred to as regular customers. Because the promotional
coupons were not sent to regular Pelican Stores customers, management considers the sales
made to people presenting the promotional coupons as sales it would not otherwise make.
Of course, Pelican also hopes that the promotional customers will continue to shop at its
stores.

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Pelican’s management would like to use this sample data to learn about its customer base and to
evaluate the promotion involving discount coupons.

Managerial Report

Use the methods of descriptive statistics presented in this chapter to summarize the data and comment
on your findings. At a minimum, your report should include the following:

1. Descriptive statistics on net sales and descriptive statistics on net sales by various
classifications of customers.
Descriptive statistics for all customers are shown followed by the same descriptive statistics for
4 subgroups of customers.
Net Sales (All Customers)

Mean $77.60
Median $59.71
Std. Dev. $55.66
Range $274.36
Skewness 1.715

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 NET SALES BY CUSTOMER TYPE
Married Single Regular Promotion
Mean $78.03 $77.04 $61.99 $85.25
Median 59.00 69.00 51.00 63.64
Std. 57.67 46.21 35.07 61.38
Deviation
Range 274.36 163.30 137.25 274.36
Skewness 1.732 1.254 1.351 1.520

A few observations can be made:

a. Customers taking advantage of the promotional coupons spent more money on average. The mean
amount spent by all customers is $77.60; the average amount spent by promotional customers was
$85.25.

b. The standard deviation of sales is $55.66. This indicates a fairly wide variability in purchase
amounts across customers. This variability is quite a bit smaller for the regular customers.

c. The distribution of the sales data is skewed to the right. The mean ($77.60) is larger than the
median ($59.71) and the skewness measure (1.715) is positive. Positive skewness is typical for this
kind of data. There are no negative sales amounts and there are a few large purchases.

There are many other descriptive statistics students may generate using the other variables. These
will lead to other observations concerning the demographics of the Pelican customers and their
buying behavior. For example, the following crosstabulation shows data for the 70 female
customers classified by type of customer and marital status.

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 Gender Marital Status
Female Female Total Grand Total
Type of Customer Data Married Single
Promotional Average of Age 44 33 43 43
Average of Net Sales 86.48 75.96 85.20 85.20
Count of Customer 58 8 66 66
Regular Average of Age 44 42 44 44
Average of Net Sales 58.81 89.50 64.49 64.49
Count of Customer 22 5 27 27
Total Average of Age 44 36 43 43
Total Average of Net Sales 79 81 79 79
Total Count of Customer 80 13 93 93

We see that for the 58 female-married promotional customers the average net sales was $86.48, and
that for the 8 female-single promotional customers the average net sales was $75.96. Thus, for the
promotional customers the average net sales are greater for the married female customers. Note,
however, that this effect is just the opposite for the regular customers. For the female-married
promotional customers the average net sales is also much greater than the average net sales for the
female-married regular customers.

2. Descriptive statistics concerning the relationship between age and net sales.

The correlation coefficient for the association of sales with age is r = .01. There does not
appear to be any relationship between net sales and age.

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Chapter 4: Introduction to Probability
Question 1 (Question 10)

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a. If you randomly choose a Delta Air Lines flight, what is the probability that this individual
flight has an on-time arrival?
.865
b. If you randomly choose one of the 10 airlines for a follow-up study on airline quality
ratings, what is the probability that you will choose an airline with less than two mishandled
baggage reports per 1000 passengers?
3 out of 10 airlines have less than two mishandled baggage reports per 1000 customers
3/10=.3

c. If you randomly choose 1 of the 10 airlines for a follow-up study on airline quality ratings,
what is the probability that you will choose an airline with more than one customer
complaint per 1000 passengers?
5 out of 10 airlines have more than one complains per 1000 customers
5/10=.50

d. What is the probability that a randomly selected AirTran Airways flight will not arrive on
time?

1-prob(on time) = 1-.871=.129

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Chapter 5: Discrete Probability Distributions
Question 1 (Question 9)

For unemployed persons in the United States, the average number of months of
unemployment at the end of December 2009 was approximately seven months (Bureau of
Labor Statistics, January 2010). Suppose the following data are for a particular region in
upstate New York. The values in the first column show the number of months unemployed
and the values in the second column show the corresponding number of unemployed
persons

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Let x be a random variable indicating the number of months a person is unemployed.
a. Use the data to develop an empirical discrete probability distribution for x.

There are a total of 26,975 unemployed persons in the data set. Each probability f(x) is
computed by dividing the number of months of unemployment by 26,975. For example,
f (1) = 1029/26,975 = .0381. The complete probability distribution is as follows.
x f (x)

1 .0381

2 .0625

3 .0841

4 .0992

5 .1293

6 .1725

7 .1537

8 .1330

9 .0862
10 .0415

b. Show that your probability distribution satisfies the conditions for a valid discrete
probability distribution.
f (x)  0 and  f (x) = 1

c. What is the probability that a person is unemployed for two months or less? Unemployed
for more than two months?

Probability 2 months or less = f (1) + f (2) = .0381 + .0625 = .1006

Probability more than 2 months = 1 - .1006 = .8994

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d. What is the probability that a person is unemployed for more than six months?

Probability more than 6 months = f (7) + f (8) + f (9) + f (10) = .1537 + .1330 + .0862
+ .0415 = .4144

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