School of Business, Economics & Political

Science
Statistics, (15BBST20P)
Prep. Year-2015/2016

Sheet 2& Model Answer

Chapter (2)
Example 1
For each of the following examples of data, determine the type.
a) The number of miles joggers run per week
b) The starting salaries of graduates of MBA programs
c) The months in which a firms employees choose to take their vacations
d) The final letter grades received by students in a statistics course.

Solution
a) Interval
b) Interval
c) Nominal
d) Ordinal

Example 2

For each of the following examples of data, determine the type.

a) The weekly closing price of the stock of Amazon.com
b) The month of highest vacancy rate at a La Quinta motel
c) The size of soft drink (small, medium, or large) ordered by a sample of McDonalds
customers
d) The number of Toyotas imported monthly by the United States over the last five years
e) The marks achieved by the students in a statistics course final exam marked out of 100
Solution
a) Interval
b) Nominal
c) Ordinal
d) Interval
e) Interval

Example 3

Baseball fans are regularly asked to offer their opinions about various aspects of
the sport. A survey asked the following questions. Identify the type of data.
a) How many games do you attend annually?
b) How would you rate the quality of the food? (excellent, very good, good, fair, poor)
c) Do you have season tickets?

Solution
a) Interval
b) Ordinal
c) Nominal

Example 4
For each of the following examples of data, determine whether the data type is interval,
ordinal, or nominal.
a) The weekly level of the prime interest rate during the past year
b) The make of car driven by each of a sample of executives
c) The number of contacts made by each of a companys salespersons during a week
d) The rating (excellent, good, fair, or poor) given to a particular television program by
each of a sample of viewers
e) The number of shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange each week throughout
1987

Solution
a) Interval, if the interest rate level is expressed as a percentage. If the level is simply
observed as being high, moderate, or low, then the data type is ordinal.
b) Nominal
c) Interval
d) Ordinal, because the categories can be ordered
e) Interval
Example 5

A sample of university graduates was surveyed 5 years after graduation and asked
to report their occupations. The responses and their frequencies are listed below.

Job Category Frequency

1 Unemployed 10
2 Manager 75
3 Blue-collar worker 19
4 Clerical worker 112
5 Other 64

Summarize the data with an appropriate graphical method.

Solution

120 112

100
75
Graduate

80
64
60
40
19
20 10
0
Unemployed ManagerBlue-collar worker
Clerical worker Other

Unemployed
Pie Chart 4%
Other
23%
Manager
27%

Blue-collar
7%

Clerical
39%
Most graduates are managers or are doing clerical work.

The percents are obtained by calculating the relative frequencies.

Example 6

After a long career a racehorse retired. His finishes were recorded and are listed
below. Use a graphical technique to summarize the data and interpret your findings.

Finish Frequency
First 11
Second 24
Third 35
Fourth 28
Fifth 20
Sixth 6
Seventh 5
Eighth 3

Solution

B a r C h a rt

40
35
35
28
30
24
25
20
20

15 11
10 6 5
3
5

0
First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth

The horse has had a satisfactory career, but not an outstanding one.