MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
Solve the problem.
1) Which of the following is
... [Show More] not the job of a statistician?
A) implementing new procedures based on the results of a study
B) determining whether the conclusions drawn from a study are to be trusted
C) collecting numerical information in the form of data
D) determining what information is relevant in a given problem
Answer: A
SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.
2) What is statistics?
Answer: Statistics is the science of data that involves collecting, classifying, summarizing, organizing, analyzing,
and interpreting numerical information.
MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
3) A recent report stated "Based on a sample of 130 truck drivers, there is evidence to indicate that, on average,
independent truck drivers earn more than company-hired truck drivers." Does this statement describe
descriptive or inferential statistics?
A) Descriptive statistics B) Inferential statistics
Answer: B
4) A survey of high school teenagers reported that 93% of those sampled are interested in pursuing a college
education. Does this statement describe descriptive or inferential statistics?
A) Descriptive statistics B) Inferential statistics
Answer: A
5) The average age of the students in a statistics class is 22 years. Does this statement describe descriptive or
inferential statistics?
A) Inferential statistics B) Descriptive statistics
Answer: B
6) From past figures, it is predicted that 47% of the registered voters will vote in the March primary. Does this
statement describe descriptive or inferential statistics?
A) Inferential statistics B) Descriptive statistics
Answer: A
7) Parking at a large university has become a very big problem. University administrators are interested in
determining the average parking time (e.g. the time it takes a student to find a parking spot) of its students. An
administrator inconspicuously followed 250 students and carefully recorded their parking times. The university
is interested in using the information from the sample of 250 students collected to learn information about the
entire student parking population. Would this be an application of descriptive or inferential statistics?
A) Descriptive statistics B) Inferential statistics
Answer: B
2
8) As part of an economics class project, students were asked to randomly select 500 New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE) stocks from the Wall Street Journal. As part of the project, students were asked to summarize the current
prices (also referred to as the closing price of the stock for a particular trading date) of the collected stocks using
graphical and numerical techniques. Would this be an application of descriptive or inferential statistics?
A) Inferential statistics B) Descriptive statistics
Answer: B
SHORT ANSWER. Write the word or phrase that best completes each statement or answers the question.
9) In a survey of 3000 high school students, 21% of those surveyed read at least one best-seller each month. Give
an example of a descriptive statement and an inferential statement that could be made based on this
information.
Answer: Descriptive: 21% of the students sampled (or 630) read at least one best-seller each month.
Inferential: Based on the survey, we estimate that about 21% of all high school
students read at least one best-seller each month.
MULTIPLE CHOICE. Choose the one alternative that best completes the statement or answers the question.
10) Which of the following is not an element of descriptive statistical problems?
A) data are displayed visually in graphs
B) predictions are made about a larger set of data
C) patterns in a data set are identified
D) information revealed in a data set is summarized
Answer: B
Answer the question True or False.
11) When we take data obtained from a sample and make generalizations or predictions about the entire
population, we are utilizing inferential statistics.
A) True B) False
Answer: A
12) Statistics involves two different processes, describing sets of data and drawing conclusions about the sets of
data on the basis of sampling.
A) True B) False
Answer: A
Solve the problem.
13) Parking at a university has become a problem. University administrators are interested in determining the
average time it takes a student to find a parking spot. An administrator inconspicuously followed 90 students
and recorded how long it took each of them to find a parking spot. Identify the population of interest to the
university administration.
A) the entire set of students who park at the university
B) the students who park at the university between 9 and 10 AM on Wednesdays
C) the 90 students about whom the data were collected
D) the entire set of faculty, staff, and students who park at the university
Answer: A
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14) Parking at a university has become a problem. University administrators are interested in determining the
average time it takes a student to find a parking spot. An administrator inconspicuously followed 220 students
and recorded how long it took each of them to find a parking spot. Identify the variable of interest to the
university administration.
A) time to find a parking spot B) number of empty parking spots
C) students who drive cars on campus D) number of students who cannot find a spot
Answer: A
15) An assembly line is operating satisfactorily if fewer than 2% of the phones produced per day are defective. To
check the quality of a day's production, the company randomly samples 40 phones from a day's production to
test for defects. Define the population of interest to the manufacturer.
A) the 40 phones sampled and tested
B) all the phones produced during the day in question
C) the 40 responses: defective or not defective
D) the 2% of the phones that are defective
Answer: B
16) An insurance company conducted a study to determine the percentage of cardiologists who had been sued for
malpractice in the previous three years. The sample was randomly chosen from a national directory of doctors.
What is the variable of interest in this study?
A) all cardiologists in the directory
B) the doctor's area of expertise (i.e., cardiology, pediatrics, etc.)
C) the responses: have been sued/have not been sued for malpractice in the last three years
D) the number of doctors who are cardiologists
Answer: C
17) A study attempted to estimate the proportion of Florida residents who were willing to spend more tax dollars
on protecting the Florida coastline from environmental disasters. Twenty-six hundred Florida residents were
surveyed.Which of the following is the population used in the study?
A) the 2600 Florida residents who were surveyed
B) all Florida residents who lived along the coastline
C) all Florida residents
D) Florida residents willing to spend more tax dollars protecting the coastline from environmental disasters
Answer: C
18) A study attempted to estimate the proportion of Florida residents who were willing to spend more tax dollars
on protecting the Florida beaches from environmental disasters. Twenty-six hundred Florida residents were
surveyed.Which of the following describes the variable of interest in the study?
A) the 2600 Florida residents surveyed
B) the response to the question, "Are you willing to spend more tax dollars on protecting the Florida beaches
from environmental disasters?"
C) the response to the question "Do you live along the beach?"
D) the response to the question "Do you use the beach?"
Answer: B [Show Less]