Do Now!
 Go to
http://www.sss.gov/WHHAP.HTM and
read through the seven hyperlinks.
 Take your time and absorb the
information.
The Vietnam Draft Lottery
(Fair or Unfair?)
Mr. Frew
Stat Class
Created in 2004
Vietnam War – A Background
 The Vietnam War was a war fought between 1964 and
1975 on the ground in South Vietnam and bordering
areas of Cambodia and Laos and in bombing runs over
North Vietnam.
 Fighting on one side was a coalition of forces including
the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam or the "RVN"),
the United States, South Korea, Thailand, Australia,
New Zealand, and the Philippines.
 Fighting on the other side was a coalition of forces
including the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North
Vietnam) and the National Liberation Front (NLF), a
South Vietnamese guerrilla movement. The USSR and
People's Republic of China provided military aid to the
North Vietnamese and to the NLF, but they were not
military combatants.
 The war was part of a larger regional conflict involving
the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos,
known as the Second Indochina War. In Vietnam,
this conflict is known as the American War.

Citation: http://www.campusprogram.com/reference/en/wikipedia/v/vi/vietnam_war.html
During The Vietnam War, there was
a draft.
 However, there were accusations that
the draft (especially in 1970) was
unfair.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z
VwUEABV9mg
Was the draft in 1970 fair?
 In Excel, load the data set regarding
the 1970 Draft Lottery.
 You will find a list of the lottery numbers
associated with the 1970 draft, sorted by
birthday.
 You should make an adequately labeled
scatterplot comparing the day of the
year (x axis) to the lottery number (y
axis).
The Project Part #1
 In a word document, I should see the
adequately labeled scatterplot (each axis
labeled, chart titled).
 In the same document, answer the
question: “Does there seem to be any
relationship between birthday and lottery
number?”
 Hint: To answer this question, think about what
a scatterplot with no correlation would look like.
Still searching for fairness…
 Use Excel to find the five digit
summary of the lottery numbers for
each month.
 You should have twelve five digit
summaries.
 Divide the work between you and your
partner.
 Organize these into a readable chart and
put them in your Word document.
Creating a Boxplot Diagram
 Display the 12 boxplots on one
adequately labeled piece of graph
paper.
 Connect the medians of the twelve
boxplots with a series of segments.
 This process is an attempt to find a
pattern in the chaos of the initial
scatterplot.
Drawing Conclusions
 On your Word document answer the
following questions:
 After connecting the medians, does the lottery
still seem fair?
 Think about: If every birthday had an equal
chance of getting picked early (or late) in the
draft, should the medians (or other five digit
summary elements) be approximately equal or
should they vary wildly?
 If your answer is that the lottery was unfair,
generalize why you believe the lottery was
unfair.
The Next Steps..
 Repeat the data analysis process
(scatterplot and boxplots) for the
1971 data located in Mr. Frew’s
network folder.
 In your word document, compare and
contrast the 1970 and 1971 draft
lotteries writing with an emphasis
towards comparing their fairness.
Postscript
 Read the following article and incorporate
your opinions of them into your word
document.
 Regarding what happened in the 1970 draft:
Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not
Random
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM Special to The New York
Times New York Times (1857-Current file); Jan
4, 1970; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The
New York Times pg. 66