Chapter 1

BUAD Homework 1

due Wednesday, January 26, 2011 in class

1. Below are listed several variables. Which of these variables are quantitative and which are qualitative? Explain.

a. The ethnicities of part-time MBA students.

b. The salaries of top CEOs.

c. The zip codes of addresses in California.

d. A list of the major television networks.

e. Gross receipts for the first weekend tickets of the newest Harry Potter movie.

2. What does each of the following population shapes look like (with respect to the comparison of mean and median)? Draw a simple picture to illustrate each shape.

a. Symmetrical and bell-shaped.

b. Double-peaked.

c. Skewed with a tail to the left.

d. Skewed with a tail to the right.

3. Match each of the following descriptions of variables to a Pareto chart, pie chart, or histogram to indicate which is the most appropriate graph for the variable.

a. Proportion of automobiles sold during the last quarter by eight major manufacturers.

b. Number of different types of defects found in computer equipment.

c. Frequencies of heights of children under the age of 3 years old.

d. Destinations for travelers leaving the United States and heading abroad.

e. Reason for customers hanging up when calling a computer help desk.

4. Suppose you were looking at the histogram of the incomes of all of the households in the United States.

a. Do you think that the histogram would be bell shaped? Skewed left? Or skewed right?

b. Which would you expect to be larger, the mean or the median?

5. Consider the following sample of data: 32, 33, 22, 28, 24, 23, 27, 24, 27, 21.

a. Compute the mean of the dataset.

b. Compute the median of the dataset.

c. What is the range?

d. What is the variance?

6. If the median of a dataset is 760, the upper quartile is 950, and the lower quartile is 650, what is the interquartile range?

7. What happens to the...