BA215 Bus Stat Assign Wk1

Assignment Week 1

Question 1

1. Determine which of the following statements is descriptive in nature and which is inferential. Refer to the data below in How Old is My Fish?

How Old is My Fish
Average age by length of largemouth bass in new York State
Length 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Age 2 3 3 4 4 5 5

a. All 9-inch largemouth bass in New York State are an average of 3 years old.

b. Of the largemouth bass used in the sample to make up the NYS DEC Freshwater Fishing Guide, the average age of 9-inch largemouth bass was 3 years.

In your answer also describe and explain the difference between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.

Question 2

2. Since 1981, Fortune magazine has been tracking what they judge to be the “best 100 companies to work for.” The companies must be at least ten years old and employ no less than 500 people. Below are the top 25 from the list compiled in 1998, together with each company’s percentage of females, percentage of job growth over a 2 year span, and number of hours of professional training required each year by the employer.

Company Name Women (%) Job Growth (%) Training (hr/yr) 
Southwest Airlines 55 26 15
Kingston Technology 48 54 100
SAS Institute 53 34 32
FEL-Pro 36 10 60
TDIndustries 10 31 40
MBNA 58 48 48
W.L.Gore 43 26 27
Microsoft 29 22 8
Merck 52 24 40
Hewlett-Packard 37 10 0
Synovus Financial 65 23 13
Goldman Sachs 40 13 20
MOOG 19 17 25
DeLoitte & Touche 45 23 70
Corning 38 9 80
Wegmans Food Products 54 3 30
Harley-Davidson 22 15 50
Federal Express 32 11 40
Proctor & Gamble 40 1 25
Peoplesoft 44 122 0
First Tennessee Bank 70 1 60
J.M. Smucker 48 1 24
Granite Rock 17 29 43
Petagonia 52 5 62
Cisco Systems 25 189 80

a. Find the mean, range, variance, and standard deviation for each of the three variables shown in the list. Present your results in a table.

b. Using your results from (a), compare the distributions for job growth percentage and percentage of women employed. What can you conclude?

Grading Criteria Assignments Maximum Points
Meets or exceeds established assignment criteria 40
Demonstrates an understanding of lesson concepts 20
Clearly present well-reasoned ideas and concepts 30
Mechanics, punctuation, sentence structure, spelling that affects clarity, and citation of sources as needed            10
Total 100