Santiago Rivera

Class: Math 1040

Teacher: Elizabeth Jones

Term Project Skittles

In this project we were ask in class to purchase one 2.17-ounce bag of

original Skittles and record the number of red, orange, yellow, green and purple
candies in the bag, and e-mail this information to our instructor. Our teacher
compiled all the data from the whole class, along with the total number of candies
in each bag, the total number of bags, and the total number of candies in an
Excel file. This data will be use thought out the process of this project, which will
require editing and adding as I process through all part of this assignment.

After creating the Pie & Pareto charts for the whole class, and my own
bag; I came to the conclusion that the results were not exactly what I was
expecting. In the class data the most color was yellow with 518, second red with
513, third purple with 497, forth orange with 496 and fifth green with 491, with a
final total of 2515, in 42 bags. The only thing in both graphs had in common; was
that the most color in both data sets was yellow. Then I had two colors with the
same amount, orange and green with the same amount of 13, purple and red
with the same amount of 9, with final total of 59 candies in my own bag. Please
refer to pie Charts and pareto Charts below to compare class and mine data
sets.
 The shape of the distribution for the histogram for the class data set was
not the shape I was expecting at all. In fact, I was expecting a normal distribution
shape. After talking to a math tutor, we determined that the closest shape could
be left skewed. The data collected by the whole class is slightly different than
my own bag. For example, my bag had more yellow candies, and fewer reds and
purples, than the average of the class.
Mean: 59.9, Standard Deviation 3.32, Total values 42.
Min: 53, Q1: 59, Med: 60, Q3: 62, Max: 65

Reflection:

Categorical variables are also called qualitative variables or attribute

variables. The values of a categorical variable can be put into a countable
number of categories or different groups. Categorical data may or may not have
logical order. The values of a quantitative variable can be ordered and measured.
For categorical variables, pie and bar charts are the best because we can
separate them into categories. Histogram and boxplot are not good graphs
because x values are not continuous.
For quantitative variables, histogram and Boxplot are the best because
they put data points on a spectrum and every possible data point has a place
within that spectrum. It makes sense to add and subtract x values in
quantitative - but not in qualitative - standard deviations and means because we
have x values that are continuous.