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Mackensie Shaw

Mrs. Shalabi

Math 1040

04 March 2019

Skittles Project Part 1

For our project in MATH 1040 everyone in the class was asked to buy a 2.17 individual

sized bag of skittles and count the number of each color of candy in the bag. The class data was

compiled and we used it for a number of different exercises involving a different aspect of

statistics. For the first part of the project, we determined the proportion of each color of candy

and created a Pareto chart and a pie chart for the total number of each color of candies in the

entire class. We compared the class data to our own personal data and noted any similarities or

differences. For part 2 of the project we used the skittles data to create statistics summaries of the

mean, standard deviation and 5-number summary. We made a frequency histogram of the total

number of candies as well as a box plot. We then explained the differences between our own

data, what we expected to see and the distribution of the graph. We also compared our own total

to the total of the whole sample.

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Math 1040 Class Skittles Proportions

C​o​l​o​r Count Proportion of Total

Red 491 .189
Orange 521 .201
Yellow 514 .198
Green 546 .210
Purple 524 .098
Total 2591 1.000
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Math 1040 My Skittles Proportions

C​o​l​o​r Count Proportion of Total

Red 8 .143
Orange 9 .161
Yellow 13 .232
Green 15 .268
Purple 11 .196
Total 56 1.000

As you can see above, I have created a Pie Chart and Pareto Chart and the proportions to show

the number of candies of each color in the Skittles bags for the entire class sample. These graphs

do reflect what I expected to see, I hypothesized that the number of colors of Skittles I had in my

bag would most likely represent what the entire class had as well. Although I did assume that the

numbers for each color would vary a little bit as well as the number of Skittles in each person’s

bag. The overall data from the class sample reflects very similarly with my results that I

received. Below are tables reflecting the results I got from my own bag of Skittles and the results

for the classroom sample.

Summary statistics:
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Column n Mean Variance Std. dev. Std. err. Median Range Min Max Q1 Q3

Candies 46 56.4 165.7 12.87 1.9 59 74 0 74 57 60

per bag
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In the above histogram and boxplot it shows the distribution of the candies per bag for the

classroom sample. In the histogram and boxplot you can see how the distribution is skewed to

the left of the graph. The graphs reflected what I expected to see, and the data was similar to my

own data collected. There are 4 outliers according to the data; 0, 40, 66, 74. The zero outlier is

due to the incomplete data causing the graph to be skewed. Almost all of the results are between

54 and 63 so the amount of candies per bag are pretty consistent. In my bag of skittles I had a

total of 56 so my bag of skittles was similar to the total amount of data collected. My 56 skittles

was only 3 skittles away from the mean/average which is 59.

Reflection:

There are two basic divisions of data, quantitative and categorical. Quantitative data is values

that can be measured or counted, you will sometimes hear it called numerical data. Some

examples of quantitative data would be weight in pounds, length in inches, and time in seconds.

Categorical data is values or observations like names or labels that can be sorted into groups or

categories but cannot be measured. Categorical data can take on numerical values in some cases

but those numbers don’t have mathematical meaning. Examples of categorical data would be

models of cars, gender, pass or fail, and eye color. Graphs that make sense with categorical data

would be pareto chart, bar graph, and pie chart. Scatterplot, stem-and-leaf plot, time-series graph,

and dot-plot are example of graphs that make sense using quantitative data. In quantitative data

you could add, multiply, subtract, and divide the data. Calculations with quantitative data still

makes sense mathematically when manipulated but you could not make calculations with the

categorical data. Such as the colors of Skittles in this project, does it make sense to add or
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multiply the categories yellow + green? The answer is no, this would not provide mathematical

meaning.