Question 1
Both descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, and range) and probability (the likelihood that something will happen) can be useful in our academic, professional, and personal lives.
• Determine which of the two (descriptive statistics or probability) you find to be the most useful in your life and explain why using two (2) specific examples.
Question 2
Read the scenario and use your knowledge of descriptive statistics to answer the prompt.
You are the marketing manager at The Best Candy Shop where the top sales item is the Dream Popbags of flavored candies. You have been getting complaints from customers that there are not enough lemon or blueberry flavored candies, which are favorites, and too many grape and strawberry flavored candies. Your boss wants you to create an advertisement indicating, “all bags have equally likely flavors.” (That is, the probability of getting a strawberry flavored candy piece is the same as getting a blueberry flavored candy piece, etc.).
As the marketing manager, you want to make sure you are advertising truthful information, so you pull a sample bag of Dream Pop candy and find the following pieces:
• 16 grape flavors
• 12 strawberry flavors
• 6 lemon flavors
• 6 blueberry flavors
• Explain how you could communicate to your boss that his advertising suggestion (all bags have equally likely flavors) would be incorrect. You must include at least two (2) probabilities from your sample bag of candy that would deem his advice inaccurate.
Question 3
Read the scenario and use your knowledge of descriptive statistics to answer parts A and B below.
Customers at IT Phone Call Center have been complaining that they are waiting too long for service. The managers at the call center have taken notice and asked you to do some investigating to determine the typical service time for their customers for morning shifts compared to evening shifts. You collect the following samples (time in minutes):
• Morning shifts: 8, 15, 16, 18, 18, 20, 21, 21, 21, 56
• Evening shifts: 3, 11, 12, 14, 22, 22, 30, 33, 34, 47
A. Calculate the mean, median, and mode for each shift using the data above. Explain your calculations.
B. Explain in detail which descriptive statistic (mean, median, or mode) you would utilize to communicate the typical service time to your boss for each shift and why. In your explanation, be sure to include which shift (morning or evening) has the quicker turn-around time.