SKITTLES PROJECT

By Charlie Uhi

Salt Lake Community College

Statistics - Math 1040
 Introduction

In class we each were tasked to buy a bag of skittles, count the how many skittles were in

a single bag, and then compile the data. We then broke down the project in four separate parts

where we found the total amount of candies gathered by the class, created graphs and statistics of

each of our own bags while also predicting what the compiled data will look like in a graph.

Then in part three and four we organized and displayed Quantitative Data: Total Candies per Bag

and discussed and found the confidence intervals.

Skittles Project Data (Class) Part 1

Bag
bag Red Orange Yellow Green Purple count
1 8 14 8 14 17 61
2 9 16 7 10 15 57
3 10 9 18 9 13 59
4 10 14 13 18 7 62
5 5 12 10 20 13 60
6 23 14 21 15 22 95
7 21 12 14 12 12 71
8 14 4 21 7 11 57
9 12 14 13 7 11 57
10 12 13 9 12 11 57
11 11 15 9 8 13 56
12 11 15 10 13 11 60
13 10 9 10 13 20 62
14 7 15 11 12 15 60
15 10 13 17 11 7 58
16 11 10 15 4 16 56
18 9 13 6 14 15 57
19 11 9 15 8 5 48
20 12 11 11 12 11 57
21 12 12 11 12 12 59
22 9 8 11 9 8 45
23 20 12 10 4 13 59
24 12 10 11 11 12 56
25 15 14 6 12 13 60

284 288 287 267 303

 Skittles Project Part-2. Predictions for entire sample

Red Orange Yellow Green Purple Total

Amount 12 12 12 6 18 59
Percent in 20% 20% 20% 10% 30% 100%
Bag

Reason: based off of my bag, purple dominated with orange and red not far behind. Yellow and

green were on the lower end on the amounts. If I had to make a guess, I would think that there

wouldn’t be a significance in numbers, but purple could be on the higher end with green on the

lower numbers with an average of 59 Skittles per bag.

My Skittle Bag

ID 23 Red Orange Yellow Green Purple Total

My bag 11 15 9 8 13 56
Percentage 20% 27% 16% 14% 23% 100%
 CLASS DATA

Red Orange Yellow Green Purple Total

Total 1432 1377 1438 1424 1320 6991
Amount
Percent in 20% 20% 21% 20% 19% 100%
Bag

Pie Chart of Class Data

Percentage of Skittles

Purple Red
19% 20%

Green
20% Orange
20%

Yellow
21%

Red Orange Yellow Green Purple

Pareto Chart of class Data

Were you surprised by the color proportions?

Yes, I was, after comparing the data from my bag to that of the entire class, I could easily

tell that my predictions were off and that the color proportions remained fairly even throughout

the bags.

Examine the distribution of colors in your bag and in other individual bags in the class

sample, then look at the color proportions in the total class sample. What do you notice

about large and small samples and variation in the color proportions?

After looking through the Data, I was able to see that the colors relatively even out,

though one bag may have gotten a higher number of purple, another could have gotten a higher

number of green with a lower number of orange. Sometimes the bag fairly leveled the colors out

in the bag.

Discuss the observation of the data.

This simple random sample of skittles across Utah is interesting because when I looked at

the data that came with my bag, I wondered if the data of the rest of my classmates would look

fairly similar. However, I was surprised to see that the colors fairly leveed out throughout the

class sample which went against my predictions. To me this is very important because the class

data shows a sample of the variations that are distributed and shows a slightly bigger picture.

PART 3: Organizing and Displaying Quantitative Data: Total Candies per Bag

TO TURN IN (feel free to copy, paste, and then edit this with your answers into another

document)
 Using the work you’ve completed, answer the four questions/prompts below in a single

document called “Skittles_Project_Part_3”. Upload that document to Canvas (Skittles Project

Part 3 summary stats).

1. Summary statistics: Using the total number of candies in each bag in our class sample,

compute the following measures for the variable “Total candies in each bag”, rounding your

results to the nearest tenth, if needed.

Mean number of candies per bag 59.54

Standard deviation of the number of candies per bag 8.91

Min= 45
Q1= 57
5-number summary for the number of candies per bag Q2= 56
Q3= 60
Max= 95

2. Histogram: Create a frequency histogram for the variable “Total candies in each bag”.
 3. Boxplot: Create a boxplot for the variable “Total candies in each bag”.

Note: Your graphics must have descriptive titles and be appropriately labeled.

4. Number of Candies: Write a well-written and thoughtful paragraph discussing your findings

about the variable “Total candies in each bag”. Address the following in your writing:

 What is the shape of the distribution for “Total candies in each bag? Is this what you expected?
Why?
To me it looks like it is a skewed right, this did somewhat surprise me, I would have thought
that it would be fairly uniform but as this project progresses, it becomes further from the
case.
 Are there any observations that appear to be outliers? If so, what impact might they have on
graphics and summary statistics?

There does not seem to be any outliers in the data, if there were it might affect the mean,
standard deviation, and the range. Other than the data would remain relatively the same.
 Part 4 of the skittles project

1. Proportion Yellow Candies: Construct a 99% confidence interval

estimate for the population proportion of yellow candies. Use technology to
find the interval, and then also verify your result using the formulas. Show
your computations, using an equation editor to format your work. Use a
complete sentence to interpret this interval, in context. 

The 99% confidence interval for the proportion of yellow candies are (12.687 , 14.01) I found
this result by using technology by inputting into the calculator the following data:
1. STD- 4.35
2. Mean- 13.35
3. Sample size- 287
4. C-Level- 0.99

Then I also verified the result buy the formula:

This data shows that there are about 13 to 14 yellow skittles per bag.

2. Mean Number of Candies: Construct a 95% confidence interval

estimate for the population mean number of candies per bag. Use
technology to find the interval, and then also verify your result using the
formulas. Show your computations, using an equation editor to format your
work. Use a complete sentence to interpret this interval, in context.

The 95% confidence interval for the mean number of candies per bag is (59.731 , 60.149) I
found this result by using technology by inputting into the calculator the following data:

3. STD- 8.91
4. Mean- 59.54
5. Sample size- 6991
6. C-Level- 0.95

Then I also verified the result buy the formula:

This data shows that there are about 60 candies per bag of skittles.