2.

10 Exercises
1) A national cancer institure survey of 1,580 adult women recently responded to the
question “In your opinion, what is the most serious health problem facing women?”
The responses are summarized in the following table:

The most serious health Relative frequency

problem for women

Breast cancer 0.44

Other cancers 0.31

Emotional stress 0.07

High blood pressure 0.06

Heart trouble 0.03

Other problems 0.09

a) Use one of graphical methods to describe the data.

The most serious health problem for women

0.5
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
Relative frequency

0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
r s s e le s
ce er es ur ub lem
an nc str ss rt o b
t c ca al re o
ea
s er n p rt pr
th io oo
d ea er
Br O m
ot bl H th
E h O
ig
H
 b) What proportion of the respondents believe that high blood pressure or heart
trouble is the most serious health problem for women?

the proportion of respondents who believe that high blood pressure or heart trouble is the
most serious health problem for women, add the relative frequencies for these two
categories:

Proportion=0.06+0.03=0.09

c) Estimate the percentage of all women who believe that some type of cancer is the
most serious health problem for women?

Percentage = 0.09 x100 = 90%

So, 9% of the respondents believe that high blood pressure or heart trouble is the
most serious health problem for women.

2) The administrator of a hospital has ordered a study of the amount of time a patient
must wait before being treated by emergency room personnel. The following data
were collected during a typical day:

WAITING TIME (MINUTES)

12 16 21 20 24 3 11 17 29 18

26 4 7 14 25 2 26 15 16 6

a) Arrange the data in an array from lowest to heighest. What comment can you
make about patient waiting time from your data array?
Arranging the data in an array from lowest to highest:
2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 26, 29

Comment: The patient waiting times range from 2 minutes to 29 minutes.

b) Construct a frequency distribution using 6 classes. What additional interpretation can

you give to the data from the frequency distribution?

Constructing a frequency distribution using 6 classes:

Class Interval Frequency

0-5 3
6-10 3
11-15 4
16-20 4
21-25 3

Additional interpretation: This frequency distribution shows the distribution of waiting

times in different time intervals, providing insight into the frequency of patients waiting
within each interval.
 a) Construct the cumulative relative frequency polygon and from this ogive state
how long 75% of the patients should expect to wait.

mid- Cumulative
Class upper Cumulative Relative cumulative
poin Frequency Relative
interval limits Frequency Frequency percentage
t Frequency
0-5 5 2.5 3 3 0.15 0.15 15.00%
Jun-10 10 8 3 6 0.15 0.3 30.00%
Nov-15 15 13 4 10 0.2 0.5 50.00%
16-20 20 18 4 14 0.2 0.7 70.00%
21-25 25 23 3 17 0.15 0.85 85.00%
26-30 30 28 3 20 0.15 1 100.00%

4.5 Frequency polygone

4
3.5
3
frequnecy

2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
2.5 8 13 18 23 28

midpoint
 ogive
25

20
upper limits

15

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

cumulative frequency

From the ogive, at the cumulative frequency we find that 75% of the patients should
expect to wait for approximately 20 -25 minutes.

3) Bacteria are the most important component of microbial eco systems in sewage
treatment plants. Water management engineers must know the percentage of active
bacteria at each stage of the sewage treatment. The accompanying data represent the
percentages of respiring bacteria in 25 raw sewage samples collected from a sewage
plant.

42.3 50.6 41.7 36.5 28.6

40.7 48.1 48.0 45.7 39.9

32.3 31.7 39.6 37.5 40.8

50.1 39.2 38.5 35.6 45.6

34.9 46.1 38.3 44.5 37.2

a. Construct a relative frequency distribution for the data.

Chose intrval of 5
 Class Interval Frequency Relative Frequency
25-30 2 2/25 = 0.08
30-35 5 5/25 = 0.20
35-40 9 9/25 = 0.36
40-45 6 6/25 = 0.24
45-50 3 3/25 = 0.12

b. Construct a stem and leaf display for the data.

Stem Leaf
2 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.8
0.8 0.9 0.9
3 1.2 1.3 1.5 1.5 2.1 2.2 2.2
2.2 2.3 3.2 3.3 3.5 5.1 6.1
6.6

c. Compare the two graphs of parts a and b.

The relative frequency distribution provides a summary of the data in terms of

percentages, while the stem and leaf display gives a more detailed view of individual
data points and their distribution.
The relative frequency distribution helps in understanding the proportion of data
falling within each class interval, while the stem and leaf display allows for a closer
examination of the actual data points.

4) At a newspaper office, the time required to set the entire front page in type was
recorded for 50 days. The data, to the nearest tenth of a minute, are given below.

20.8 22.8 21.9 22.0 20.7 20.9 25.0 22.2 22.8 20.1

25.3 20.7 22.5 21.2 23.8 23.3 20.9 22.9 23.5 19.5

23.7 20.3 23.6 19.0 25.1 25.0 19.5 24.1 24.2 21.8

21.3 21.5 23.1 19.9 24.2 24.1 19.8 23.9 22.8 23.9

19.7 24.2 23.8 20.7 23.8 24.3 21.1 20.9 21.6 22.7

a) Arrange the data in an array from lowest to heighest.

19.0, 19.5, 19.5, 19.7, 19.8, 19.9, 20.1, 20.3, 20.7, 20.7,
20.7, 20.8, 20.9, 20.9, 20.9, 21.1, 21.2, 21.3, 21.5, 21.6,
21.8, 21.9, 22.0, 22.2, 22.5, 22.7, 22.8, 22.8, 22.8, 22.9,
23.1, 23.3, 23.5, 23.6, 23.7, 23.8, 23.8, 23.8, 23.9, 23.9,
24.1, 24.1, 24.2, 24.2, 24.2, 24.3, 25.0, 25.0, 25.1, 25.3

b) Construct a frequency distribution and a “less-than” cumulative frequency

distribution from the data, using intervals of 0.8 minutes.

Frequency Cumulative Frequency

19.0 - 19.8 6 6
20.0 - 20.8 9 15
21.0 - 21.8 8 23
22.0 - 22.8 7 30
23.0 - 23.8 12 42
24.0 - 24.8 9 51
25.0 - 25.8 4 55

c) construct a frequency polygon from the data.

d) Construct a “less-than” ogive from the data.

 ogive
60

50

40

30

20

10

0
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

e) From your ogive, estimate what percentage of the time the front page can be set
in less than 24 minutes.

From the ogive, we can see that the cumulative frequency for less than 24 minutes is 51.
Therefore, approximately 51 out of 55 days, or about 92.7% of the time, the front page
can be set in less than 24 minutes.