Using the World
Wide Web for Teaching Statistics
This document contains problems that can be used in an introductory statistics course. The problems are grouped into the following categories.
Numerical Description of Data
The following sites have useful resources for teaching
statistic.
The Dataset and Story Library: http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/DASL/
Data Surfing: http://it.stlawu.edu/~rlock/datasurf.html
StatLib Dataset Archive: http://lib.stat.cmu.edu/datasets/
Java Applets for Statistics: http://www.stat.duke.edu/sites/java.html
Multimedia Statistics Page: http://www.berrie.dds.nl/index.html
Rice Virtual Lab in Statistics: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lane/rvls.html
Journal of Statistics Education Data Archive: http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/jse_data_archive.html
1. In a survey of 1000 people, conducted in June 2002 by Strategy One/Colonial Williamsburg, they were asked what issues was most important to them out of the choices given in the table below.
Issue
|
Percentage of Response
|
|
Freedom of Speech |
26 |
|
Access to affordable health care |
20 |
|
Freedom of religion |
19 |
|
Opportunity of economic advancement |
12 |
|
Right to pursue an education |
12 |
|
Freedom of press |
3 |
|
Don’t know/none of the above |
8 |
(Source: Survey One/Central Williamsburg, USA Today, August 13, 2002)
Draw a pie chart to describe the distribution.
2. 25 countries won medals in the 2002 Winter Olympics. The table below list them along with the total number of medals each won.
Country
|
Medals
|
Country
|
Medals
|
|
Germany |
35 |
Croatia |
4 |
|
USA |
34 |
Korea |
4 |
|
Norway |
24 |
Bulgaria |
3 |
|
Canada |
17 |
Estonia |
3 |
|
Austria |
16 |
Great Britain |
3 |
|
Russia |
16 |
Australia |
2 |
|
Italy |
12 |
Czech Republic |
2 |
|
France |
11 |
Japan |
2 |
|
Switzerland |
11 |
Poland |
2 |
|
China |
8 |
Spain |
2 |
|
Netherlands |
8 |
Belarus |
1 |
|
Finland |
7 |
Slovenia |
1 |
|
Sweden |
6 |
|
|
(Source: CNNSI.com http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2002/current_medal_tracker/)
(a) Draw a pie chart to describe the distribution. What problems do you encounter?
(b) Can you find a way to organize the data so that the graph is more successful?
3. 202 countries participated in 2004 Summer Olympics, and 75 countries won medals. The table below list top 25 countries with the total number of medals won.
Country
|
Medals
|
Country
|
Medals
|
|
USA |
103 |
Romania |
19 |
|
Russia |
92 |
Spain |
19 |
|
China |
63 |
Hungary |
17 |
|
Australia |
49 |
Greece |
16 |
|
Germany |
48 |
Belarus |
15 |
|
Japan |
37 |
Canada |
12 |
|
France |
33 |
Bulgaria |
12 |
|
Italy |
32 |
Brazil |
10 |
|
South Korea |
30 |
Turkey |
10 |
|
Great Britain |
30 |
Poland |
10 |
|
Cuba |
27 |
Thailand |
8 |
|
Ukraine |
23 |
Denmark |
8 |
|
Netherlands |
22 |
|
|
(Source: CNNSI.com http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2004/medaltracker/medalTrackerByTotal.html)
a. Draw a pie chart to describe the distribution. What problems do you encounter?
b. Can you find a way to organize the data so that the graph is more successful?
4. The following table, based on the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association Survey for the second quarter of 2002, gives the prices (in dollars) of five items in 25 urban areas across the United States.
|
City |
Apartment Rent |
Phone Bill |
Price of Gasoline |
Visit to Doctor |
Price of Beer |
|
Montgomery (AL) |
$576 |
$22.28 |
$1.335 |
$52.33 |
$7.88 |
|
Juneau (AK) |
1020 |
18.26 |
1.584 |
88.67 |
8.12 |
|
Tucson (AZ) |
689 |
21.03 |
1.347 |
54.80 |
7.79 |
|
Sacramento (CA) |
749 |
16.99 |
1.643 |
70.00 |
6.99 |
|
San Diego (CA) |
1306 |
24.57 |
1.632 |
75.20 |
7.99 |
|
Denver (CO) |
891 |
23.10 |
1.343 |
71.8 |
6.90 |
|
Hartford (CT) |
896 |
22.39 |
1.419 |
80.25 |
7.15 |
|
Jacksonville (FL) |
810 |
20.31 |
1.419 |
63.80 |
7.15 |
|
Bloomington (IN) |
678 |
19.95 |
1.402 |
56.67 |
6.99 |
|
New Orleans (LA) |
798 |
26.06 |
1.351 |
56.20 |
6.56 |
|
Boston (MA) |
1248 |
24.41 |
1.405 |
78.00 |
7.21 |
|
Grand Rapids (MI) |
678 |
22.40 |
1.499 |
59.20 |
8.03 |
|
Minneapolis (MN) |
815 |
25.16 |
1.366 |
72.20 |
7.49 |
|
Springfield (MO) |
568 |
18.25 |
1.309 |
63.72 |
7.89 |
|
Billings (MT) |
550 |
30.45 |
1.449 |
70.75 |
7.09 |
|
Buffalo (NY) |
714 |
33.71 |
1.413 |
53.00 |
7.03 |
|
Charlotte (NC) |
540 |
21.07 |
1.359 |
58.00 |
7.03 |
|
Akron (OH) |
686 |
21.16 |
1.519 |
59.40 |
7.29 |
|
Oklahoma City (OK) |
579 |
23.04 |
1.308 |
60.02 |
6.94 |
|
Portland (OR) |
753 |
20.92 |
1.403 |
72.40 |
7.69 |
|
Philadelphia (PA) |
1282 |
21.12 |
1.360 |
62.50 |
8.57 |
|
Austin (TX) |
1025 |
19.20 |
1.299 |
68.33 |
6.78 |
|
Richmond (VA) |
769 |
26.15 |
1.317 |
59.80 |
6.37 |
|
Spokane (WA) |
593 |
18.49 |
1.305 |
61.80 |
6.89 |
|
Charleston (WV) |
606 |
27.08 |
1.423 |
64.67 |
7.01 |
Apartment Rent: Monthly rent of an unfurnished 2-bedroom apartment (excluding all utilities except water), 1 ½ or 2 baths, approximately 950 square feet.
Phone Bill: Monthly telephone charges for a private residential line (customer owns instruments).
Price of Gasoline: Price of one gallon regular unleaded, national brand.
Visit to doctor: General practitioner’s routine examination of patient.
Price of Beer: Heineken’s 6-pack, 12-oz. containers, excluding deposit.
a. Prepare frequency distributions for the five variables.
b. Construct the relative frequency and percentage distribution for the five variables.
c. Draw histograms.
5. The table below shows the average SAT scores for each of the 50 states and District of Columbia for 1990 and 2000.
State
|
1990 |
2000 |
|
Alabama |
1079 |
1114 |
|
Alaska |
1015 |
1034 |
|
Arizona |
1041 |
1044 |
|
Arkansas |
1077 |
1117 |
|
California |
1002 |
1015 |
|
Colorado |
1067 |
1071 |
|
Connecticut |
1002 |
1017 |
|
Delaware |
1006 |
998 |
|
D.C |
950 |
980 |
|
Florida |
988 |
998 |
|
Georgia |
951 |
974 |
|
Hawaii |
985 |
1007 |
|
Idaho |
1066 |
1081 |
|
Illinois |
1089 |
1154 |
|
Indiana |
972 |
999 |
|
Iowa |
1172 |
1189 |
|
Kansas |
1129 |
1154 |
|
Kentucky |
1089 |
1098 |
|
Louisiana |
1088 |
1120 |
|
Maine |
991 |
1004 |
|
Maryland |
1008 |
1016 |
|
Massachusetts |
1001 |
1024 |
|
Michigan |
1063 |