The class was asked to buy a bag of skittles and count how many of each color skittle was

in the bag;
giving the information to the teacher he gave us the total number of each individual totaling 1496
skittles in all. We will be asked to find the mean, standard deviation, 5-number summary, and make
numerous charts displaying the data we have collected.

I thought I would have seen a little more consistency with each color of skittle, I was unhappy with my
bag; I got 18 Purple and that is my least favorite color. I prefer the Greens & Yellows; they were however
my second highest colors. The Pie Chart almost looks more evenly distributed to me than the Pareto/Bar
Chart. The number from my own bad differed greatly to some of the other class; but then again it was
similar to others. I do not think the color of the skittle is irrelevant to the company as to how many are
actually in the bag. I was surprised how the number was different as well.

Total
Mean
Standard Deviation
Minimum
Maximum
Q3
Q1
Count

59.8
1.8
55
63
61
59
25

Purple
314

Green
308

Yellow
299

Red
295

Orange
280
= 1496

Purple
18

Green
14

Yellow
10

Red
11

Orange
6
= 59

For Bin frequency it appears to be a normal bell curve that is skewed to the left some,
the data is close enough to not make a huge difference but it does have some pull.
Categorical data: Or qualitative or attribute data; consist of names or labels that are not
numbers representing counts or measurements. Pie charts and Pareto/Bar graphs are used with data
that is in categories i.e.: Categorical data. Quantitative data: or numerical data; consists of numbers

representing counts or measurements. Histograms, Box Plots and Scatter Plots use numerical data i.e.:
Quantitative data. Using a chart with the wrong kind data of will make the meaningless and confusing.
Confidence intervals help us estimate the true value of a population parameter. It is a range or interval.
We use Confidence intervals associated with a certain level (confidence level) for a percentage. It gives
us a much better sense of how good an estimate is. We usually use 90%, 95% depending on the success
rate of the procedure used to construct the confidence interval for the hypothesis. Confidence intervals
are decided prior to the testing.
For proportion of yellow candies we are 99% sure that our true proportion of yellow candies falls in the
range of (0.187, 0.207).
For the mean number of candies in a bag we are 95% sure that the true mean of candies in a bag falls
between (59.1, 60.53).
For the standard deviation of the number of candies in a bag, we are 98% sure that the true standard
deviation is between (34.1, 60.1)
Hypothesis testing in statistics is a procedure of testing a claim or statement about a property of a
population. Its a counter claim to evaluate a hypothesis.
When conducting the hypothesis test for the claim that 20% of the candies are red, we have an actual
proportion of 20%. This gives us a test statistic of zero, we fail to reject the claim of the Ho: because they
are exactly 20%.
For the claim that the mean number of skittles is 55 a bag, we would reject this hypothesis. The test
statistic is 13.7 standard deviation away from the actual mean. This is very unrealistic.
For proportion tests, we need to have successes and fails more than 5. We definitely have more than
this with our data of 1496 total candies. With hypothesis testing we need sample size of 25 or needs to
be from a normal distribution. Our histogram was normal so we met this requirement.
Students could have just given any number and not really counted the number of skittles there really
were. There could be color blind students that could not really tell what color there is in the bag. We
could have messed up the N for the equations (like we did) and gotten our numbers way off.
Improvements could be a larger sample size, or having one person doing it. My conclusion is that it is
useful; it shows that things are just better than 50/50, you can disprove or prove someones statement.

Reflection
My struggle with math has followed me for many years; but with the last few math classes that I have
had to take for my future career they have shown me that the ideas we learn in class can and will be
used in a certain profession on a daily basis. Even though they might not pertain to me directly for my
career, they might be everything the person sitting next to me needs; since the college is offering the
same class for so many different professions. I have come to the realization that I need to learn it to
further my education in the math field to help me better understand other concepts that may and will
apply to me later for my career choice. Even if I might not use these certain skills someone else will. This
class however has taught me that if I wanted to test a hypothesis of the probability of something
happening I would be able to; if I understood the rules a little better. My test scores however show that
I didnt understand it well. I understand the concept of how it works but there were a lot of rules and
formulas that I would be able to have in front of me in the real world, but instead on a test I didnt and I
was unable to come up with the conclusions myself. So instead of guessing that everything has a 50/50
chance of happening, which is just what I had always thought, I would be able to see what the real
probability is. I also know now that nothing is really random in the world anymore and I think about this
quite often. I hear that someone did a random sample, or that something was randomly selected and I
cant help but wonder what kind of random (test) they chose to make their decision, and how they
decided to go with that one specifically; or was it really randomly selected. I have such a strong love
hate relationship with math because there is one universal right way to do math, but I always seem to
come up with my own way and add more steps than there really is. I felt that this class made me think in
a different way; almost helping with my critical thinking skills; of which formula to use, when in previous
classes there was only one and I knew which one to use. This class has been a struggle and there have
been many nights of me drinking a lot of wine and eating ice cream in hopes that the next day when I
studied that I would understand it. I hope that one day it does all click in my head and I will just laugh at

the tests I did so poorly on. I know now after this semester that the college has a lot of resources for
students to utilize, I was unaware of them before; but I was also not looking for them which is my fault. I
wished I had taken them up on them sooner so that I might not be repeating this class next semester.
Even if I dont pass with my hoping grade I did learn a lot from this semester and my professor. I hope
that I can possibly put them to use on a daily basis and possibly help someone else in the process.