SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
MTH 106: INTRODUCTORY STATISTICS-2024/25
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS: REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Determine what the key terms refer to in the following study.
As part of a study designed to test the safety of automobiles, the National Transportation
Safety Board collected and reviewed data about the effects of an automobile crash on test
dummies. Cars with dummies in the front seats were crashed into a wall at a speed of 35
miles per hour. We want to know the proportion of dummies in the driver’s seat that would
have had head injuries if they had been actual drivers. We start with a simple random
sample of 75 cars.
2. You go to the supermarket and purchase three cans of soup (19 ounces) tomato bisque,
14.1 ounces lentil, and 19 ounces Italian wedding), two packages of nuts (walnuts and
peanuts), four different kinds of vegetable (broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, and carrots), and
two desserts (16 ounces Cherry Garcia ice cream and 32 ounces chocolate chip cookies).
Identify data sets that are quantitative discrete, quantitative continuous, and qualitative.
3. Work collaboratively to determine the data is quantitative or qualitative. For quantitative
data, indicate whether they are continuous or discrete.
a. the number of pairs of shoes you own
b. the type of car you drive
c. where you go on vacation
d. the distance it is from your home to the nearest grocery store
e. the number of classes you take per academic year
f. the tuition for your classes
g. the type of calculator you use
h. movie ratings (PG, R, …)
i. political party preferences
j. weights of sumo wrestlers
k. amount of money (in dollars) won playing poker
l. number of correct answers on a quiz
m. peoples’ attitudes toward the government
4. Which data type suits for which graphical methods?
s/n Data type Graphical type
i Continuous
ii Scale
iii Discrete
iv Categorical
v Binary
vi Nominal
vii Ordinal
viii Interval
5. Which numerical presentation techniques suit for following scales of measurement?
s/n Levels of measurement Numerical presentation techniques
1
1 Nominal
2 Ordinal
3 Discrete
6. The mean and standard deviation of a sample of size 10 were found to be 9.5 and 2.5
respectively. Later on, an additional observation became available. This was 1.5 and was
included in the original sample. Find the mean and standard deviation of the 11
observations.
7. The mean and standard deviation of 10 observations were found to be 16.5 and 4.7. But
later on it was discovered that, the value 16 and 12 were wrongly entered instead of a 6
and 2. Find the correct value of the mean and the standard deviation.
8. Study the two groups A and B and comment on the variability
A 43 44 46 40 44 42 45 42 38 40 42 57
B 29 31 19 18 19 27 27 29 41 30 26 10
9. The scores in an IQ test for 60 candidates are shown in the table.
Score Frequency
100 – 106 8
107 – 113 13
114 – 120 24
121 – 127 11
128 – 134 4
Find the;
a. mean score
b. median
c. mode
d. standard deviation.
10. Calculate the missing frequency from the following data, given that the median is 46.75
Marks obtained 20 – 30 30 – 40 40 – 50 50 – 60 60 - 70
No. of students 3 5 20 ? 5
11. The median and mode of the following frequency distribution are known to be 27 and 26
respectively. Find the values of x and y.
C.I. 0 – 10 10 – 20 20 – 30 30 – 40 40 - 50
Frequency 3 x 20 12 y
12. In a fifth-grade class, teacher was interested in the average age and the sample standard
deviation of the ages of her students using frequency distribution. The following data are
the ages for a sample of n = 20 fifth grade students. The ages are rounded to the nearest
half year: 9; 9.5; 9.5; 10; 10; 10; 10; 10.5; 10.5; 10.5; 10.5; 11; 11; 11; 11; 11; 11; 11.5;
11.5; 11.5; The average age is 10.53 years, rounded to two places. Find the sample
standard deviation, rounded to two decimal places.
13. The average weight of 10 men is 58.5kg as shown to the table below:
Weight in kg 50 55 60 X+12.5 70 Total
Total Number of men 1 4 2 2 1 10
Find the value of x.
2
14. Why median is not affected by extreme values compared to mean?
15. Listed below are the ages for 29 Academy Award winning best actors: 18; 21; 22; 25; 26;
27; 29; 30; 31; 33; 36; 37; 41; 42; 47; 52; 55; 57; 58; 62; 64; 67; 69; 71; 72; 73; 74; 76; 77
a. Find the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quartiles
b. Compute 1st, 7th and 9th deciles
c. Find the 70th percentile and 83rd percentile.
16. The following data represent selling prices for homes in a certain city. Calculate the IQR
389,950; 230,500; 158,000; 479,000; 639,000; 114,950; 5,500,000; 387,000; 659,000;
529,000; 575,000; 488,800; 1,095,000
17. The total sale (in Ths ‘000) of a particular item in a shop, on 10 consecutive days, is
reported by a clerk as , 35.00 , 29.60 , 38.00 , 30.00, 40.00,41.00, 42.00, 45.00, 3.60,
3.80.
a. Calculate the average.
b. Later it was found that there was a number 10.00 in the paying machine and the
reports of 4th to 8th days were 10.00 more than the true values and in the last 2
days he put a decimal in the wrong place, thus for example 3.60 was really 36.0.
Calculate the true mean.
c. What will be the true variance and standard deviation?
18. (a) What is range and how is it calculated?
(b) Consider the following frequency distribution of the income per month for 300 workers.
Income per month 41- 50 51-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 91-100 Total
Number of 30 36 43 104 73 14 300
earners
i) Calculate the first three central moments of this distribution
ii) Determine the coefficient of variation for the distribution
19. From the following table showing the wage distribution in a certain company.
Weekly Wages (‘Tshs ‘000) No. of employees
20-40 8
40-60 12
60-80 20
80-100 30
100-120 40
120-140 35
140-160 18
160-180 7
180-200 5
Determine
a) the mean wage
b) the median wage
c) the modal wage
d) comments on each of the above results
