Kristy Ashby

Math 1040 Term Project

Fall 2015
Doug Richards
This project starts with all the class members purchasing one 2.17-ouce bag of Original
Skittles. We opened them up and recorded the following information; how many red candies,
orange candies, yellow candies, green candies, and purple candies. We put this information into a
chart for easy access to be used later in the project.
My information:

Red candies = 9
Orange candies = 16
Yellow candies = 9
Green candies = 10
Purple candies = 17

This is the number of each color of candy in the ENTIRE class sample

This is the number of each color of candy in MY bag

Percentage of each color in each bag for the ENTIRE class

Percentage of each color in MY bag

I was surprised at how close in amounts each bag had of each color. My bag definitely
had more of certain colors and less of others. But as a whole class it was pretty even.
I feel that the Pareto Chart makes it easier to see the slight difference in each color. When
looking at the Pie Chart the pieces of the pie are too close to the same size to see a difference.

Summary statistics:

Column
Bag Totals

Mean
60.8

Std. dev.
4.93

Median

Min
61

44

All of the bags in the study are put into a histogram and then a boxplot.

Max
86

Q1
59

Q3
63

I like both of these types of graphs because it shows the outliers really well. Obviously
there were a few bags that didnt match with the others in count. These graphs show that most
likely there was an error when entering the data or human error when reporting the data because
a Candy company wouldnt allow this much of a deviation. My own bag had 56 candies in it.
That is lower than the mean and the median. These two types of graphs work best for

quantitative data because it shows the outliers and the mean. You couldnt use this kind of data
with the Pie chart or the Pareto chart and expect to get the same type of results. Or at least the
results wouldnt make as much sense as they so displayed this way.
Confidence Interval Estimates
A confidence interval is two given percentages of how confident we are that our sample inside
our parameters. If we run the same test a 1000 times we are confident that our answer would land
in between our numbers.

Construct a 99% confidence interval estimate for the true proportion of yellow candies.

n= 3,950 p-hat= x/n = 817/3950 = .207 Za/2 = 99% confidence level on the chart = 2.575
E=Za/2(square root) (p-hat)(1-p-hat)/n E=2.575(square root) (.207)(.793)/3,950=.017
Confidence Level= .207-.017=.19, .207+.017=.224
With 99% confidence, the true proportion of yellow candies of all skittles is between .19 and
.224

.19<p<.224

The single bag of candy I bought, based on my interval for the true sample proportion of
yellow candies is unusual. I had only 9 yellow candies in my bag of 61. Which is .148, that
number is outside of my confidence interval of .19<p<.224

Construct a 95% confidence interval estimate for the true mean number of candies per
bag. n=65 alpha=.05 Ta/2=1.998 Mean=60.77 Standard Deviation=4.93
x-E < u< x+E where E=ta/2(s/square root of n)
1.998(4.93/square root of 65)=1.222
Confidence level = 60.77-1.222<u<60.77+1.222
59.548<u<61.992

With 95% confidence, the true mean number of candies per bag of skittles is between
59.548 and 61.992.
The single bag of candy I purchase was not unusual because the total number of candies

in my bag was 61 and that is within my confidence interval of 59.548 and 61.992
Construct a 98% confidence interval estimate for the standard deviation of the number of
Candies per bag.
n=65 s= 4.93
Chi-Square (x2) Distribution Critical values = 93.217, 40.649
Square root of (n-1)s(squared)/X2R < alpha < square root of (n-1) s(squared)/X2L
Square root of (64)(4.93squared)/93.217 Square root of (64)(4.93 squared)/40.649
4.085 < SD < 6.186
With 98% confidence, the true population standard deviation is between 4.085 and 6.186
Hypothesis Tests
A hypothesis test is a test of significance used by statisticians. They use these tests to
either accept or reject the hypotheses. The hypotheses itself is a claim or statement about
a population parameter.
Claim #1
Ho: p=.20 the claim H1: p does not equal .20
X=709 total red candies n=3950 total number of candies in class data
Stat, tests, 1-prop z test, p=.20, x=709, n=3950, prop: does not equal, calc.
Z=-2.087 p=.0366 p-hat=.179
Since the p-value .0366 is less than the significance level .05, we reject the null
Hypothesis. There is sufficient evidence to warrant rejection of the claim that 20% of all
Skittles candies are red.
Claim #2
Ho: mu=57 the claim
H1: mu does not equal 57
Sig. Level= 0.01 C.V.=2.66 x=60.77 s=4.93 n=65
Stat,tests, T-test, mu=57, x=60.77, s=4.93, n=65, mu: does not equal, calc
t=7.80 p=0
Since the p=value 0 is less than the significance level .01, we reject the null hypothesis.
There is sufficient evidence to reject the claim that the mean number of candies
in a bag of skittles is 57.
The requirements for using the normal distribution to test hypotheses about the
population proportion are #1SRS #2 the conditions for binomial distribution are satisfied
(fixed # of trials=3950, trials independent=709 red candies, 5% guideline, 2 categories

red or not, probability of success remains the same in all trials.#3The conditions np and
nq are greater than or equal to 5 are both met. (3950*.20=790) and (3950*.80=3160).
The requirements for testing claims about a population mean with standard deviation
unknown are #1 SRS #2 either or both of these conditions are satisfied. (The populations
normally distributed or n>30). Our class did meet most of the requirements besides the
SRS. Things that could cause possible errors are human input errors, counting errors, or
outliers.
Reflection:
As a result of this project I have learned how to apply the formulas into real world
testing. There are so many other things we could be testing for. I wonder if the bags that
are sent to other parts of the country or other parts of the world would have the same
results we saw. I also wonder how they compare to other Skittle packages such as the
Tropical kind. I can see this type of analysis being used in many areas of the work force. I
am currently a full time mother of 4 children and a full time student. So applying it to my
nob would be a little hard to do, because school is my job. I hope to become an
Occupational Therapist assistant. I can see all of the information I was thought this year
being used in that field of work. Doing hypothesis testing on what treatments are working
and which ones arent. Even though we did not use the linear correlation and regression
in this project I can see how it can be applied to real life situations also.
This project helped me understand a lot more about every day problem solving.
As we discussed in class, there were a few outliers in this project. When doing the
boxplot you could clearly see how that would have happened. It proves that we are
human, we make mistakes and even when it is something important mistakes can happen.

I am a visual person, when I see the graphs and charts we made it helps me understand
what exactly we are doing. It helps me understand why we use statistics.
Conclusion:
As I think about all of the things we have learned in Math 1040 (Statistics), there
are a few things I have really enjoyed. I have really enjoyed my teacher. He always put
forth the effort to teach our class in a way that we understood. He always found time to
help us understand the problems and work through the ones we were struggling with. You
can tell by the way he teaches that he is passionate about this subject. Statistics itself is a
very interesting subject that I was always a little scared of. Because of this class I have
learned Statistics are nothing to be scared of, the more you understand them the more
comfortable you will be explaining what they mean. A lot of the equations we learned
are applicable to everyday life. Figuring out probabilities and proportions are just a few
of the concepts we discussed. I enjoyed seeing all of them used in the real world. It has
encouraged me to look at statistics with a different point of view. Seeing what is true
rather then what they want you to believe is true.