STATISTICS QUESTIONS

QUESTION ONE

(a) Statistics is a body of concepts and methods which deal with data collection,
organization, presentation, analysis and interpretation using different phenomena, to
draw valid conclusions and making reasonable decisions on the basis of research.
(i) Mention any two sources that are used to obtain statistical data
(ii) Which of the two sources is most preferred by researchers? Justify your answer.
(b) One of the methods of data presentation is the graphical method.
(i) Mention and give a sketch of each of the three types of bar graphs.
(ii) The following table shows student enrollment at a certain university in Uganda
(hypothetical data) in the courses as indicated.

Year Education IT
1990 50 45
1991 68 73
1992 75 80
1993 40 50
1994 48 30

Represent the information using a multi-bar graph.

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 QUESTION TWO

(a) What are measures of central tendency as used in statistics?

(b) Mention any three measures of central tendency you know.
(c) Construct a frequency distribution table for the following figures of weights obtained
from 36 elements of mathematics students in Uganda Martyrs University using a class
width of 3 and starting with the class 56-58.
66 70 68 67 71 60
64 70 68 65 64 61
71 66 67 65 68 59
67 65 68 66 69 58
66 65 65 71 70 56
57 60 62 56 59 72
(d) Using the frequency distribution table in 4 (c) above, find the;
(a) Mean weight
(b) Modal weight
(c) Median weight of the students.

QUESTION THREE

(i) Distinguish the following terms as used in statistics.

(a) A sample and a population
(b) A parameter and a statistic
(ii) Why do you think most researchers choose to use a sample instead of the population in
their surveys?
(iii) Consider the figures of monthly salaries in dollars extracted from the accounts
department of an organization.
440, 430, 515, 420, 490, 438, 435, 438, 500, 510 and 600
Using the data above, find the;
(a) Mean deviation of the data

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 (b) Lower quartile
(c) Upper quartile
(d) Interquartile range.

QUESTION FOUR

(a) For a regression line y  a  bx , show that;

a
 y  b x
n
n xy   x  y
b
n x 2   x 
2

(b) A new computer circuit was tested and the times (in micro seconds) required to carry
out different subroutines were recorded as follows.

x 1 2 3 4
y 1 5 8 13

(i) Calculate the values of a and b for the given data for the regression line
y  a  bx

(ii) Hence estimate y when x  2.5

(iii) Sketch the scatter diagram for the data above.
(iv) Is there a linear relationship between the variables x and y ?

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 QUESTION FIVE

(a) (i) With relevant diagrams (sketches), distinguish between the positive, negative and
zero correlation.

(ii) Explain the major difference between correlation and regression.

(b) The head of statistical data in the mathematics department found the following data
after quizzing seven students in the BED (T) first year students.

Individual Number of sodas Number of bathroom trips

consumed (x) (y)
Rick 1 2
Janice 2 1
Paul 3 3
Suzan 3 4
Cindy 4 6
John 5 5
Donald 6 5

(c) Compute the Pearson correlation coefficient between the sodas and the visits to the
bathrooms as a result of the drinks.
n xy   x y
Hint:  
n x 2

  x  n y 2   y 
2 2

(d) Some of the rank correlations are the Spearman and Kendall’s rank correlation
coefficients. In relation to their formulas, state the difference between the two.
(Clearly explain the meaning of all symbols used in your formulas stated above).
(e) The data given provides scores of a certain class in Mathematics and History tests in
percentage:

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 Mathematics 84 72 67 51
History 16 19 33 19

Calculate the Kendall’s correlation between the two test scores.

QUESTION SIX
(a) Consider the information below which considers the grades of a class of students in
mid-term tests (x) alongside the final exam mark (y)
x 77 50 71 72 81 94 96 99 67
y 82 56 78 34 47 85 99 99 68

(i) Plot the scatter diagram.

(ii) Obtain the equation of line of regression of y on x.
(iii) Determine the values of y if x=55.
(b) Consider the information given below which considers the number of cars in the
kingdom (x) alongside the road accidents occurring y.
x 26 31 35 37 41 44 46 49 53 58
y 138 163 166 153 177 207 216 208 226 238

(i) Plot the scatter diagram.

(ii) Obtain the equation of line of regression of y on x.
(c) For the questions in part a and b above compute their;
(i) Pearson correlation coefficient
(ii) Spearman’s correlation coefficient
(iii) Kendall’s correlation coefficient.

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 QUESTION SEVEN

(a) (i) Define what is meant by a variable.

(ii) Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative classification of data.
(iii) What do we mean by a sample in relation to a population?
(b) Some of the scales of measurement of data are
(i) Interval scale
(ii) Nominal scale
(iii) Ratio scale
(iv) Ordinal scale

With relevant examples, briefly explain the scales above.

(c) “Data can be collected from existing sources or from surveys and experiments
designed to obtain a new data”. Describe the two sources of data in the statement
above.
(d) Most of the statistical information in newspapers, magazines, company reports and
other publications consists of data summarized and presented in a form that is easy for
the reader to understand. Such summaries of data, which may be tabular, graphical or
numerical (descriptive statistics). With examples, explain the tabular, graphical or
numerical representation of data.
(e) Fortunate magazine provides data on how the 500 largest U.S industrial corporations
rank in terms of revenues and profits. Data for a sample of Fortune 500 companies are
given in the table below.

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 A SAMPLE OF 10 FORTUNATE 500 COMPANIES

Company Revenue Profit Industry code

($ millions) ($ millions)
US Airways Group 8688.0 538.0 3
International Paper 19500.0 213.0 23
Tyson foods 7414.1 25.1 20
Hewlett-Packard 47061.1 2945.0 13
Intel 26273.0 6068.0 49
Northrup Grumman 8902.0 214.0 2
Seagate Technology 6819.0 -530.0 11
Unisys 7208.4 387.0 10
Westvaco 2904.7 132.0 23
Campbell Soup 7505.0 660.0 20

(i) How many elements are in this data set?

(ii) What is the population?
(iii) Compute the average revenue for the sample.
(iv) Using the results in (iii), what is the estimate of the average revenues for the
population?

QUESTION EIGHT

(a) Distinguish between measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion.

(b) Consider the sample with data values of 53, 55, 70, 58, 64, 57, 53, 69, 57, 68 and 53.
Compute the mean, median, mode and the interquartile range.
(c) A Bowler’s scores for six games were 182, 168, 184, 190, 170 and 174. Using these
data as a sample, compute the range and standard deviation.
(d) A production department uses a sampling procedure to test the quality of newly
produced items. The department employs the following decision rule at an inspection

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 station: If a sample of 14 items has a variance of more than 0.005, the production line
must be shut down for repairs. Suppose the following data have just been collected.
3.43 3.45 3.43 3.48 3.52 3.50 3.39
3.48 3.41 3.38 3.49 3.45 3.51 3.50
Should the production line be shut down? Why or why not?
(e) In automobile mileage and gasoline consumption testing, 13 automobiles were road
tested for 300 miles in both city and country driving conditions. The following data
were recorded for miles-per-gallon performance.
City 16.2 16.7 15.9 14.4 13.2 15.3 16.8 16.0 16.1 15.3 15.2 15.3 16.2
country 19.4 20.6 18.3 18.6 19.2 17.4 17.2 18.6 19.0 21.1 19.4 18.5 18.7

Use the mean, median and mode to make a statement about the difference in
performance for city and country driving.

QUESTION NINE
(a) Write short notes on each of the following measures of dispersion. Write down the
formula of each.
(i) Range
(ii) Variance
(iii) Standard deviation
(iv) Mean deviation
(v) Coefficient of variation
(b) What is the usefulness of variance?
(c) Describe two disadvantages of the variance.

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 QUESTION TEN

The following data shows the marks obtained by all 15 students of S.6. at some school.

No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
X 6 7 10 12 13 4 8 12 9 11 8 10 5 9 12

Suppose the marks above were sampled from a class of 50 students of S.6.

Determine the:-

i. Range
ii. Variance
iii. Standard deviation
iv. Mean deviation
v. Coefficient of variation
vi. Comment on your answers

QUESTION ELEVEN

Suppose you grew fifty carrots using special soil. You dig them up and measure their lengths
(to the nearest mm) and group the results as follows:

Length (mm) Frequency

150 – 154 5
155 – 159 2
160 – 164 6
165 – 169 8
170 – 174 9
175 – 179 11
180 – 184 6
185 – 189 3

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Determine the
i. Range
ii. Variance
iii. Standard deviation
iv. Mean deviation
v. Coefficient of variations
vi. Explain your answers

QUESTION TWELVE

The following data is a record of high temperatures for a sample of 50 countries in Africa.

112 100 127 120 134 118 105 110 109 112

110 118 117 116 118 122 114 114 105 109

107 112 114 115 118 117 118 122 106 110

116 108 110 121 113 120 119 111 104 111

120 113 120 117 105 110 118 112 114 114

Required;

(a) Construct a grouped frequency table

(b) Determine the:-

i. Mean
ii. Median
iii. Mode
iv. Quartile deviation

SUCCESS

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