Econ 5: Section Problem Set 1
All problems come from Newbold/Carlson - Statistics for Business and Economics, 8/e.
(1) A number of questions were posed to a random sample of visitors to a London tourist
information center. For each question below, describe the type of data obtained.
(a) Are you staying overnight in London, and if so, where?
(b) How many times have you visited London previously?
(c) Which of the following attractions have you visited?
Tower of London
Buckingham Palace
Big Ben
Covent Garden
Westminster Abbey
(d) How likely are you to visit London again in the next 12 months?
(1) unlikely
(2) likely
(3) very likely?
(2) The Statistical Abstract of the United States provides a reliable and complete summary of
statistics on the political, social, and economic organization of the United States. The
following table gives a partial list of the number of endangered wildlife species both inside
and outside the United States as of April 2010 (Table 383, Statistical Abstract of the United
States 2011):
Item
Endangered Wildlife Species in
the United States
Endangered Wildlife Species
outside the United States
Mammals
70
255
Birds
76
182
Reptiles
13
66
Amphibians
14
8
Fishes
74
11
SOURCE: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/geography_environment.html (accessed February 12, 2011).
(a) Construct a bar chart of the number of endangered wildlife species in the United States.
(b) Construct a bar chart of the number of endangered wildlife species outside the United
States.
(c) Construct a bar chart to compare the number of endangered species in the United
States to the number of endangered species outside the United States.
(3) Determine an appropriate interval width for a random sample of 110 observations that fall
between and include each of the following:
(a) 20 to 85
(b) 30 to 190
(c) 140 to 500
(4) A supervisor of a plant kept records of the time (in seconds) that employees needed to
complete a particular task. The data are summarized as follows: (Hint: This problem requires
no calculus, algebra, or even arithmetic; just a little thinking.)
Time
30 - 40
40 - 50
50 - 60
60 - 80
80 - 100
100 - 150
Number
10
15
20
30
24
20
(a) Graph the data with a histogram.
(b) Discuss possible errors.