Chapter 1

1. What is the difference between a sample and a population?

2. What is the difference between a statistic and a parameter?
3. What is the difference between a categorical variable and a numerical variable?
4. What is the difference between a discrete numerical variable and a continuous
numerical variable?
5. What is the difference between a nominal scaled variable and an ordinal scaled
variable?
6. What is the difference between an interval scaled variable and a ratio scaled variable?
7. What is the difference between probability sampling and nonprobability sampling?
8. What is the difference between a missing value and an outlier?
9. What is the difference between unstack and stacked variables?
10. What is the difference between coverage error and nonresponse error?
11. What is the difference between sampling error and measurement error?

ses
1. Sampling Seventy-two percent of Americans squeeze their toothpaste tube from the
top. This and other not-so-serious findings are included in The First Really Important
Survey of American Habits. Those results are based on 7000 responses from the 25,000
questionnaires that were mailed.
a. What is wrong with this survey?
b. As stated, the value of 72% refers to all Americans, so is that 72% a statistic or a
parameter?
Explain.
c. Does the survey constitute an observational study or an experiment?
2. Gallup Polls When Gallup and other polling organizations conduct polls, they typically
contact subjects by telephone. In recent years, many subjects refuse to cooperate with the
poll. Are the poll results likely to be valid if they are based on only those subjects who
agree to respond? What should polling organizations do when they encounter a subject
who refuses to respond?
3. Identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) used in each of the
following.
a. The pulse rates of women listed in Data Set 1 of Appendix B
b. The genders of the subjects included in the Freshman 15 Study Data (Data Set 3 in
Appendix B)
c. The body temperatures (in degrees Fahrenheit) of the subjects listed in Data Set 2 of
Appendix B
d. A movie critic’s ratings of “must see, recommended, not recommended, don’t even
think about going”
4. Identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) used in each of the
following.
a. The eye colors of all fellow students in your statistics class
b. The ages (in years) of homes sold, as listed in Data Set 23 of Appendix B
c. The age brackets (under 30, 30–49, 50–64, over 64) recorded as part of a Pew Research
Center poll about global warming
d. The actual temperatures (in degrees Fahrenheit) recorded and listed in Data Set 11 of
Appendix B
5. IBM Survey The computer giant IBM has 329,373 employees and 637,133
stockholders. A vice president plans to conduct a survey to study the numbers of shares
held by individual stockholders.
a. Are the numbers of shares held by stockholders discrete or continuous?
b. Identify the level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio) for the numbers of
shares held by stockholders.
c. If the survey is conducted by telephoning 20 randomly selected stockholders in each of
the 50 United States, what type of sampling (random, systematic, convenience, stratified,
cluster) is being used?
d. If a sample of 1000 stockholders is obtained, and the average (mean) number of shares
is calculated for this sample, is the result a statistic or a parameter?
e. What is wrong with gauging stockholder views about employee benefits by mailing a
questionnaire that IBM stockholders could complete and mail back?
6. IBM Survey Identify the type of sampling (random, systematic, convenience, stratified,
cluster) used when a sample of the 637,133 stockholders is obtained as described. Then
determine whether the sampling scheme is likely to result in a sample that is
representative of the population of all 637,133 stockholders.
a. A complete list of all stockholders is compiled and every 500th name is selected.
b. At the annual stockholders’ meeting, a survey is conducted of all who attend.
c. Fifty different stockbrokers are randomly selected, and a survey is made of all their
clients who own shares of IBM.
d. A computer file of all IBM stockholders is compiled so that they are all numbered
consecutively, then random numbers generated by computer are used to select the sample
of stockholders.
e. All of the stockholder zip codes are collected, and 5 stockholders are randomly
selected from each zip code.
7. JFK
a. When John F. Kennedy was elected to the presidency, he received 49.72% of the
68,838,000 votes cast. The collection of all of those votes is the population being
considered.
Is 49.72% a parameter or a statistic?
b. Part (a) gives the total votes cast in the 1960 presidential election. Consider the total
numbers of votes cast in all presidential elections. Are those values discrete or
continuous?
c. What is the number of votes that Kennedy received when he was elected to the
presidency?