This document contains several statistics problems and questions for students to work through. It includes questions about calculating relative frequencies from data, finding mean, median, mode and other measures of center from data sets, determining what score is needed on a final exam to achieve a certain overall average, and other common statistics problems. The document provides data and instructions for students to analyze the data and answer the questions.

1. Professor Brent Heard
Not to be copied or linked to without
my permission

2.  Consider the following data on impulse items bought
at the checkout line of big box store and calculate
the relative frequency for each scenario. Explain
what relative frequency is and how you calculated
it.
# of Impulse Items Purchased Frequency
0 Items 29
1 Item 7
2 Items 5
3 Items 4
4+ Items 2

3.  The following is a relative frequency distribution of lunch
preference on an Air Force base.
Lunch Preference Relative Frequency
Bring Lunch 0.27
Eat on base 0.37
Eat off base 0.31
Do not eat lunch 0.05
 If this was the distribution of 11,600 people on the Air Force
base, find the frequency for each lunch preference, explaining
your calculation and then noting what you would do with the
information if you were considering opening a restaurant just
outside the Air Force base.

4. A random sample of 10 engineers was asked
how much change in coins they had in their
pockets on a given day. The responses were:
0.78 0.58 0.75 2.30 0 1.23 1.45 0.75
1.80 0.77
 Findthe mean, mode, median and midrange
for this set of data. You may have to look
midrange up, but it is also a measure of
center. Compare the four and note how they
relate.

5.  In order to stay in the honors program, Mary
needs to have at least a 90 average in her
Geology class. She only has her final exam
left which counts for 30% of her grade. She
has had 7 graded assignments throughout the
term and each of them counted 10% toward
her final grade. Her 7 graded assignment
scores were:
78 89 97 92 84 94 88
 What does Mary need to make on her final
exam to have a 90 average?

6. A company is tracking the amount of sick
leave employees use in a given year, they
decided to use the legal department’s 11
employees as a sample. Their sick leave in
hours/year for 2011 was the following:
32 40 0 16 48 12 14 24 26 30 38
 Note the mean, variance and standard
deviation for this set of data and explain how
you might use this information in planning,
budgeting, etc.

7.  A company is tracking the amount of sick leave
employees use in a given year, they decided to use
the legal department’s 11 employees as a sample.
Their sick leave in hours/year for 2011 was the
following:
32 40 0 16 48 12 14 24 26 30 38
 The company is considering giving bonuses to
employees who use 0 hours of sick leave (this may be
illegal, this is only an example from a math guy).
Find the z score for 0 sick leave hours and explain
what percentage of employees would get a bonus
based on this example. (We would have to assume
this data is normally distributed.)

8. A company is tracking the amount of sick
leave employees use in a given year, they
decided to use the legal department’s 11
employees as a sample. Their sick leave in
hours/year for 2011 was the following:
32 40 0 16 48 12 14 24 26 30 38
 Calculate the first, second, third quartiles
and interquartile range. Explain what each
means and you might display the information
in a presentation.

9.  Thefollowing table shows the average
bonuses per employee for an accounting firm
from 2004 to 2011. Bonuses are given at the
end of the calendar year.

10. Year Avg. Bonus
2004 $2,500
2005 $2,800
2006 $3,000
2007 $3,400
2008 $3,200
2009 $2,000
2010 $1,000
2011 $1,100
Determine the percentage change
in the average bonuses from 2006
to 2010

11.  According to a recent survey of taxi cab
drivers in a major city, a driver spends an
average of 8.7 hours a day in their cab. The
standard deviation was calculated to be .72
hours and the distribution is approximately
normal. Find the three intervals noted in the
Empirical Rule and note what they are, how
they are calculated and what they mean.

12.  Open your Excel File, in my example, we will
use Case 27 (House Data)
 Select all headers and data by doing a click
drag (Left click top left corner, hold down
drag to bottom right corner)
 See following chart

13.  Just capture headers and all data…

14.  Right click or Copy what you have selected in
Excel
 Go to a blank Minitab Project Worksheet and
put your cursor in the top left blank gray cell
and paste
 See following chart

15.  Click here and paste

16.  You will now have something like this…

17.  Now in Minitab,
 At the top, Click Graph, Choose “Histogram”
 Click “OK” for Simple Histogram
 You should see this

18.  Weare doing a histogram on Age of Homes, so
double click “C8 Age” and it will appear in the
Graph Variables box.

19.  I added a Title using the Label button, then I clicked
“OK”
 Voila, you have it. Right Click, Copy Graph to put it
anywhere you wish

20. I have worked in the NASA world since completing my
graduate degree in 1987.
I earned both my M.S. and B.S. in Mathematics from
Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama. I
did Post Graduate work in Mathematics and Engineering
Management at the University of Alabama, Huntsville.
My teaching experience has included a number of colleges
in Alabama and Virginia, as well as many years with DeVry.
I am the live lecturer for all undergraduate and graduate
statistics classes at DeVry.
In my spare time I enjoy writing. My genre is observational
humor. In other words, I just enjoy finding humor in the
world and making people laugh. My stories can be found in
newspapers and at www.CranksMyTractor.com .

21.  Inthe next couple of days, I will post these
online at my “Statcave” site on Facebook.
 You DO NOT have to be a Facebook person to
see these, I simply post them there for
convenience.
 Website: www.facebook.com/statcave