Week 2 assignment: 12.

Explain and give an example for each of the following types of variables: (a ) equalinterval, (b) rank-order, (c) nominal, (d) ratio scale (e) continuous. (a) equal-interval: This scale has equal interval hence we can perform differenc es but does not have an absolute zero so we cannot perform division on these variables. These sa tisfaction levels of visitors (on Likert scale) on a scale of 1 to 5 this scale lies between rank order and ratio scale. (b) rank-order: These variables are in the next stage from the nominal. We can a rrange them in rank order but cannot do any other statistical operation such as difference, mul tiplication or division. The education level: elementary school, high school, some college, and college graduate. (c) Nominal: We cannot perform any static operations on these variables. Gender: Male & Female (d) ratio scale: This scale has an absolute zero and we can perform all possible statistical operations on these variables. Like addition, difference, multiplication and div ision. Example: Temperature in Kelvin or age (e) continuous: These variables have all possible values within the given range. For example weight or age. We can measure age on all possible points on the number line say between 0 to 100 years. 15. Following are the speeds of 40 cars clocked by radar on a particular road in a 35-mph zone on a particular afternoon: 30, 36, 42, 36, 30, 52, 36, 34, 36, 33, 30, 32, 35, 32, 37, 34, 36, 31, 35, 20, 24, 46, 23, 31, 32, 45, 34, 37, 28, 40, 34, 38, 40, 52, 31, 33, 15, 27, 36, 40 Make (a) a frequency table and (b) a histogram, then (c) describe the general sh ape of the distribution.

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 12-17 18-23 24-29 30-35 36-41 42-47 48-53 Frequency Class Interval Speed of Cars The lowest value is 15 and highest value is 52, thus we make 7 classes with CI o f 6 Frequency Table CI Frequency 12-17 1 18-23 2 24-29

3 30-35 16 36-41 11 42-47 3 48-53 2 Total 38

Histogram

19 Give an example of something having these distribution shapes: (a) bimodal, ( b) approximately rectangular, and (c) positively skewed. Do not use an example give n in this book or in class. (a) Bimodal: Distribution of height of people in a company (with both males and females - males and females will have one mode each creating bi-modal distribution). (b) Approximately rectangular: In this each value the variable can take has an e qual probability. Distribution of heads and tails in a large numbers of coin tosses, or distribution of outcome of a dice throw. (c) Positively skewed: Marks obtained in a very tough stats exams. A large numbe r of students will have low scores with few exceptional students scoring high or even 100%. 20. Find an example in a newspaper or magazine of a graph that misleads by faili ng to use equal interval sizes or by exaggerating proportion. The graph is misleading as Y axis is chosen to overemphasis the differences, whi le the actual differences are not that much. (Please see the Excel graph in the second attachm ent for more details). P.S: Scroll down for the newspaper.

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