Math 1040: Skittles Project

Tatiana Canettieri, Jamie Elsey, Olivia Madrigal, John Saline, Kari Smith, and
Charles Whitman
 Report Introduction:
The purpose of this project was to put all the statistical concepts we learned
throughout the semester like sorting and analyzing data, hypothesis testing,
forming conclusions, confidence intervals, creating charts, etc. with a hands
on learning project with skittles! To better understand the concepts, we were
instructed to purchase one 2.17 oz. bag of skittles and sorted the numbers of
skittles by color (yellow, orange, green, purple and red) for each student.
This project presents the information we found according to the data.

Pie Chart Showing Proportion Percentages of Assorted Skittles

Colors

Pareto Chart
With the above charts, you can see that the colors are equally distributed.
We expected based on experiences as young children and separating the
colors in each bag to each one at a time. We were surprised that there were
as many reds as there were in a package. It always seems like the best
flavors are lacking (like the pink Starbursts). The overall data from the group
collection and single bag selections is pretty similar.

Data Result from the Entire Sample

The data in the box plot shows a fairly uniform distribution.

Karis Skittle Results

Olivias Skittle Results

Jamies Skittle Results

Tatianas Skittle Results

Charles Skittle Results

Johns Skittle Results

Reflection #1
The difference between categorical and quantitative data, is quantitative
data is when you are working with counting, number or percentage, but
categorical is when you wish to group variables into categories (not
measured). For example, quantitative data would be the height of all the
students in our statistics class. Categorical data would be breeds of horses.
The best graphs to use for categorical data would be pie charts or bar
graphs, because it is easy to compare between each group. Box plots,
histograms and stem plots are best for quantitative data, because frequency
data is shown. In reference with our skittles project. The colors of skittles are
considered categorical data. The number of skittles is quantitative data.

Confidence Interval Estimates

Confidence Interval:
Confidence Intervals is a range that is found by a stipulated degree of
confidence interval, such as a percentage, found as in our group assignment
that states we are 99% confident that the proportion of yellow will fall
between 0.177 and 0.231 in any given bag of skittles.
In our second example, we calculated that we have a 95% confidence that
the mean of the number of candies per bag fall in-between 59.65 and 61.12.

Hypothesis Tests

The purpose and meaning of a hypothesis test

A hypothesis test is a statistical test that is used to determine whether there
is enough evidence in a sample of data to infer that a certain condition is
true for the entire population. Based on the sample data, the test determines
whether to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis. After such analyzes
one may draw a conclusion of the claim based on the hypothesis test.

In our project there were two tests done:

-The claim is that 20% of all skittles are red, consequently the claim equaled
the null hypothesis. The hypothesis test failed to reject the null hypothesis,
leading us to conclude that there is not sufficient evidence to warrant
rejection of the claim that 20% of all skittles are red.

-The claim is that the mean of candies in a bag is 55, consequently the claim
equaled the null hypothesis. The hypothesis test rejected the null hypothesis,
leading us to conclude that there is sufficient evidence to warrant rejection of
the claim that the mean number of candies is 55.
 Hypothesis Testing Reflection
In this project we used the interval estimate to determine the population
proportion, as well as the mean of the given data set that we were provided.
We were given a 95%, and a 99% confidence intervals, and were to use the
95% with the population proportion and the 99% with the hypothesis testing.

The population mean calculated on the table above was 60.4, and it did fall
in-between the 95% confidence interval (59.65-61.12). We were able to show
with the confidence interval given for the hypothesis testing that the test
statistic fell within area needed to be-able to show that we would not fail to
reject the null.

Final Reflection
The sample size (n=24) did not meet the n>30 criteria to be approximately
normally distributed. This could result in an error in the confidence interval
outcome.

Two possible errors that may have occurred for the nonresponse and
response bias. There are 35 students registered for the class (per the list in
Canvas) and only 24 students reported data, this is an example of
nonresponse bias. Students may have tried to get past purchasing the bag of
Skittles and made up the data. To improve the sampling method for this
project, we would suggest having the students bring the bag to class to
count and report the data in class.

Our sample type was simple random sampling. Another suggestion to

improve the sampling, we would recommend having each student purchase
two bags of Skittles and record the data to increase the sample size.
Assuming the same response rate, this would have given us a n=48 and
would have given us a better prediction of the population and would have
met the n>30 criteria.

We found it interesting that the conclusion of the hypothesis test was that
there was not sufficient evidence to warrant rejection of the claim that 20%
of all the skittles are red which did not match our data collection of 18.6%
red skittles.

According to our statistical research, we conclude that the more data we

have the better we can make a prediction from our sample that reflects the
population. We realize that there may be errors in the sample and know that
the larger our sample size is the smaller our room for error becomes.