WALK THE LINE

By: Madie Smithco

Madie Smithco
CHS Statistics
Ms. Coley
January 24, 2020
Walk the Line
Bible Verses
1. The Israelites were exiled from Egypt after staying in Egypt for 430 years. (Exodus
12:40-41)
2. During the day, God showed the Israelites the way by a column of cloud and He showed
them the way at night by a column of fire. (Exodus 13:21)
3. For 40 years, the Israelites were stuck in the desert. (Exodus 16:35)
4. The Israelites ate bread from heaven. (Exodus 16:4-15)
5. The Israelites drank water from the rock in Horeb. (Exodus 17:1-6)

In Exodus 13:21, it is seen that the Israelites travelling through the desert needed an
object or place to be able to find their way through the desert. This is due to the idea that humans
cannot walk in a straight path without having a specific place or landmark to walk to that is
visible. By performing an experiment that involves high school students having their vision
restricted, my group and I were able to find out whether or not a human can walk in a straight
path without having a visible landmark to walk towards.
By conducting this experiment, we were able to see how far we could walk without going
“out of bounds.” This experiment was completing by having a minimum of 30 data values to get
an accurate mean of how far someone could walk. My group formed 33 different data values. To
set up our experiment, we decided to create a five-foot boundary that was lined with blue-
painters tape. The width of the tape was included in the five-foot boundary. We extended the
length of the walking path to 139.5 feet. If someone was to walk the whole length, we decided to
cap their distance they walked at 139.5 feet. For every five feet, we marked a line our tape to get
the most accurate measurements. With our walking path, we started each person at the beginning
of the line. They were able to situate themselves at the beginning of the line to center themselves
properly. They also started with the back of their heel on the start line. As a group, we decided to
not take away sound because there could be any type of sound occurring in the real world. We
then took away their ability to see by blindfolding them with a sleeping mask and a bandana to
make sure that they had no way of seeing anything. We also added a starter that would tell the
person to begin walking. With people lined up down the hallway, we would tell the person
walking to stop when their entire foot stepped outside of the line to ensure safety and to get an
accurate measurement of where they stopped. To obtain our measurements, we marked a straight
line from the back of their heel to our taped line. We then took that point and measured it to the
nearest marking on our tape to get the distance that they walked. They then repeated the
experiment and we averaged the distance of the two paths that they walked. If a person appeared
to be walking unnaturally, we would cancel out that run and have them walk again. With all of
our data collected, we were able to come to a conclusion.
At the end of our experiment, we were able to conclude that humans, specifically high
school students in this case, are unable to walk in a straight path without having a visible
landmark to walk towards. Our experiment showed us that on average, a student was able to
walk 51.7879 feet before veering off their path. This also resulted with a standard deviation of
23.6605 feet meaning that it would be unusual for a student to stay on their path for more than
99.1088 feet. If I was to complete this experiment again, I would try to improve it by having a
tracker on the person to see the exact path they took and to get the most accurate value of the
distance they traveled. I would also try one where the student could hear no sound at all. The
sound variable could have been something that could have potentially caused a disruption to our
data values due to some students walking while they could hear voices and people walking. Our
data values also could have been skewed as a result of having one person walk the entire length
of the path without stepping out. Overall, the experiment was successful in showing that humans
are incapable to walk in a straight path if they have nothing to look at to follow.
Calculations
Average Lengths Walked Data Table
20.3 ft 25.2 ft 25.4 ft 30.1 ft 30.8 ft 40.0 ft 40.9 ft

45.6 ft 45.7 ft 50.1 ft 50.1 ft 55.4 ft 58.7 ft 60.3 ft

60.2 ft 75.4 ft 80.9 ft 90.3 ft 100.5 ft 100.6 ft 47.0 ft

24.5 ft 17.4 ft 26.3 ft 47.2 ft 26.5 ft 87.4 ft 47.9 ft

54.1 ft 45.2 ft 92.8 ft 61.6 ft 44.6 ft

1. Mean of the sample: 51.7879 feet

2. Standard deviation of the sample: 23.6605 feet
3. Critical value: tc
4. 95% confidence interval
df = 33-1 = 32
.95
.025 .025

invT (0.975,32) = 2.036933299

= 2.0369
5. Margin of error
E= (2.036933299) * (23.6604596/√33) = 8.389633989
= 8.3896
6. Confidence interval
((51.78787879-8.389633989), (51.78787879+8.389633989))
= (43.3982448, 60.17751278)
= (43.3982, 60.1775)