Explain the difference between qualitative and quantitative variables. Give an example of qualitative and quantitative variables.
Explain the difference between a sample and a population.
Explain the difference between a discrete and a continuous variable. Give an example of each not included in the text.
For the following questions, would you collect information using a sample or a population? Why?
Statistics 201 is a course taught at a university. Professor A. Verage has taught nearly 1,500 students in the course over the past 5 years. You would like to know the average grade for the course.
As part of a research project, you need to report the average profitability of the number one corporation in the Fortune 500 for the past 10 years.
You are looking forward to graduation and your first job as a sales person for one of five large pharmaceutical corporations. Planning for your interviews, you will need to know about each company’s mission, profitability, products, and markets.
You are shopping for a new MP3 music player such as the Apple iPod. The manufacturers advertise the number of music tracks that can be stored in the memory. Usually, the advertisers assume relatively short, popular music to estimate the number of tracks that can be stored. You, however, like Broadway musical tunes and they are much longer. You would like to estimate how many Broadway tunes will fit on your MP3 player.
Place these variables in the following classification tables. For each table, summarize your observations and evaluate if the results are generally true. For example, salary is reported as a continuous quantitative variable. It is also a continuous ratio scaled variable.
Using data from such publications as the Statistical Abstract of the United States, The World Almanac, Forbes, or your local newspaper, give examples of the nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio levels of measurement.
The Struthers Wells Corporation employs more than 10,000 white collar workers in its sales offices and manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, and Asia. A sample of 300 of these workers revealed 120 would accept a transfer to a location outside the United States. On the basis of these findings, write a brief memo to Ms. Wanda Carter, Vice President of Human Services, regarding all white collar workers in the firm and their willingness to relocate.
AVX Stereo Equipment, Inc., recently began a “no-hassles” return policy. A sample of 500 customers who had recently returned items showed 400 thought the policy was fair, 32 thought it took too long to complete the transaction, and the rest had no opinion. On the basis of this information, make an inference about customer reaction to the new policy.
The table below reports the number of cars and light trucks sold by the Big Three automobile manufacturers for June 2004 and June 2005.
