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PAULS UNIVERSITY
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DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT PARALLEL PROGRAMME BMA 210: BUSINESS STATISTICS 1 DATE: MONDAY 11 AUGUST 2008 INSTRUCTIONS: Answer question ONE any other FOUR questions. All questions carry equal marks. 1(a) Explain any FOUR functions of Business Statistics for a business. (4 marks) (b) A large company is considering a complete reshaping of its pay structures for production workers. Mention any FOUR primary data items to be collected and analyzed, other than technical details to help management make decisions. (4 marks) (c) Briefly outline THREE common uses of consumer price indices in any economy. (6 marks). (d) Cartons of orange juice are advertised as containing 1 litre. A random sample of 100 cartons gave the following results for the volume, x. x = 101, x2 = 103 TIME: 6PM TO 9PM

Calculate the mean and standard deviation of the volume of orange juice in these 100 cartons. SECTION B: ANSWER ANY FOUR QUESTIONS 2. The data below shows holiday locations booked through a travel agent. Europe America Africa Others 1981 385 86 40 112 1982 350 78 56 65 1983 326 124 87 156 1984 341 112 88 143 1985 286 95 84 112 1986 297 137 102 161

(a) Present this data using a percentage bar chart. (16 marks) ( b) Explain any TWO advantages of percentage bar charts.(4 marks)

3. The price of four items bought by a typical household changed in the following way between 2000 and 2004. Item Bread Cheese Eggs (6) Wine Cigarettes 2000 80 100 60 200 400 2001 85 120 65 210 410 2002 90 130 70 220 440 2003 95 140 75 230 450 2004 100 160 80 240 500

(a) Set out indices to show the prices of these goods changed in the period shown.(10 marks) (b) Set out a composite index to show average price changes of the four items in each of the years, using the year 2000 as your base year. (10 marks) 4. The number of items on each of a number of shelves in a supermarket is shown in the following table: No. of items per shelf : No. of shelves : 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 2 3 7 5 14 11 12 9 6 6 3 2

(a) What is the probability of a shelf having exactly 24 items? (5 marks) (b) What is the probability of a shelf having less than 24 items? (8 marks) (c) What is the probability of a shelf having either 24 or 25 items? (7 marks) 5. A chain of coffee bars has just lost one of its experienced managers and will be without a full-time manager for one month. Executives of the chain have decided whether to: (i) Close the coffee bar for a month and make a financial loss of Ksh2 000. (ii)Give a temporary responsibility for running the coffee bar to an existing employee with little management experience for one month. The existing employee would need to be paid an extra Ksh2000. The chance of their achieving a healthy profit that is Ksh8, 000 is 0.2. The chance of their achieving a modest profit of Ksh4, 000 is 0.8. (iii) Recruit an experienced temporary manager from an agency for one month. This would involve a payment of Ksh8, 000, made up of the managers salary for one month plus the agency commission. The probability of this manager making a good profit of Ksh10, 000 is 0.9, while the probability of their making a modest profit of Ksh 6,000 is 0.1. (a) Construct a decision tree (12 marks). (b) Calculate the expected values of each of the 3 alternatives (6marks). (c) Which is the most desirable alternative in terms of financial criteria? (2marks)

6. An Onion-growing co-operative in Naivasha grades and prices onions, according to their diameter. The following table shows the price of onions with different diameters. Price per Onion (ksh) 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Diameter (cm) Below 5 Above 5 and below 6 Above 6 and below 7 Above 7 and below 8 Above 8 and below 9 Above 9 and below 10 Above 10

Evidence shows that the mean diameter of the onions is 7.5cm with a standard deviation of 1cm. (a) What percentage of onions will be priced at each of the values 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10ksh? (10 marks) (b) What would be the total price of 10,000 onions? (6 marks) (c) What is the mean price of the onions? (4 marks) 7. The table gives the cumulative distribution of heights (in centimeters) of 400 children in a certain school. Height (cm) Cumulative frequency 100 0 110 27 120 85 130 215 140 320 150 370 160 395 170 400

(a) Draw a cumulative frequency curve (10 marks) (b) Find an estimate of median height (5 marks) ( c) Determine the interquartile range(5 marks)