Jamie Banks

Intro to Statistics
Professor Bartholomew
12 November 2014
Skittles Term Project
Before beginning any calculations for this project, we were each asked to purchase a 2.17oz bag
of Skittles so that we could count the total of number of candies in the bag, as well as how many of each
color. We were then asked to calculate a number of different things, including proportion, mean,
standard deviation, and confidence intervals. After that, we are to construct both a Pie Chart and a
Pareto Chart, as well as a 5-number summary.

5-Number Summary

Class Sample
Total Bags
Mean
Standard Deviation
Minimum
Q1
Median
Q3
Maximum

1496
25
59.84
1.80
55
59
59
61
63

Frequency Histogram
Frequency, 59,

FREQUENCY OF EACH AMOUNT

Frequency of Total11 Skittles per Bag

Frequency, 61,
4 Frequency, 62,
Frequency, 58,
2

Frequency, 55,
1
Frequency,
Frequency,
56,
57,
0

Frequency, 60,
2

3
Frequency,
63,
2

0 NUMBER OF SKITTLES PER BAG

As far as total number of Skittles per bag, its easy to tell by the histogram that the data is
skewed to the left. It seems that my particular bag, which only had a total of 55 candies, seems to be the
odd man out. It is more than two standard deviations away from the mean and had the lowest number
of candies per bag from the 25 bags in the class sample. If I actually ate Skittles, I might be insulted.
Reflection
The best example I can give of categorical data, as it relates to this project, is the color of the
Skittles. Its not a number, but can be assigned one for categorizing if needed. Pie charts work well for
categorical data, as do calculations of percentage. This is because it gives you a visual representation of
the quantities in each category. Quantitative data, on the other hand, is numerical data. An example
would be the number of Skittles per bag. For quant data, histograms are a great representation, as well
as dot plots. Some good calculations to use for quantitative data are mean, median, and standard
deviation because they give us a way to summarize, interpret and understand the data.