Kevin Curran, Reilly McSteen, and Danny Lynch

Ms. Coley
15 December 2015
AP Statistics

In this experiment, we tested the theory that humans are unable to walk in a straight line
without being able to see. Research has been done by multiple groups of researchers and
scientists on this very subject. It has been proved by these experiments that people are unable to
walk in a straight line without visual or audio aid. Let's see if this is the case once again in our
own sample.

56'

36' 10"

24' 7"

40' 7"

49' 7.5"

45' 11"

90'

26' 4"

25' 10.5"

24' 5"

100'

72'

45' 8.5"

47' 8.5"

45' 9"

84' 1"

97' 8"

32' 4.5"

74' 11"

77' 2.5"

100'

46' 3"

33' 3"

43' 8"

20' 2"

32' 3"

53' 9"

47' 10.5"

69' 8.5"

60'

24' 6.5"

100'

45' 7.75"

100'

86' 3"

x =56.332 ft
s=25.863 ft

invNorm(.975 , 0,1)
Z c =1.96 0

E=Z c

s
=Z c
n
n

is not known ,n 30, so s can be used

E=8.568 ft

( xE , x+ E )
(47.463 ft , 64.600 ft )

Procedure:
The first thing we did for our project was come up with the process we would use to
get our data. There was tape that lined the hallway on both sides 4' 3.75". We had
our participants start at the beginning of the tape and walk through it as best they
could without being able to see or hear anything. When the participant stepped
outside of the tape with their whole foot, we stopped them. Then we measured
where the front of their toe was.
Conclusion:
After doing the calculations, we are able to conclude with 95% confidence that a
person is able to walk between 47.463 and 64.6 feet before veering off track. The
lengths that the different participants walked varied from about 20 feet to 100 feet,
where some subjects had to be stopped. If they were not stopped, we could have
gotten different data, so the distances that were stopped at 100 feet, but would
have exceeded that number, might have caused our data to be slightly off. That is
the only possible error that we made when gathering data.