17 Uses and Abuses of Statistics

17 Uses and Abuses of Statistics

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Activity reasonable answers)

(c) Favourite food of a class of student (or any other
Activity 17.1 (p. 106) reasonable answers)
(d) Average income of a household in a city (or any other
1. (a) Census and Statistics Department reasonable answers)
(b) To investigate the unemployment rate in January –
March, 20XX. p. 123
2. (a) 24 000 households 1. Sampling method is misused. Simple random sampling
(b) No, because it is difficult to cover the total labour should be used instead of systematic sampling.
force.
2. No misuse of methods.
3. (a) Interview
(b) Detailed information can be obtained. 3. Data collection method is misused. Questionnaire should
be used instead of interview.
Activity 17.2 (p. 121)
4. Data collection method is misused. Interview on randomly
1. Possible errors: Low validity and errors may be selected people waiting at the stops should be used instead.
induced.
Improvements: Recruit more observers, possibly use video
to record the events for further observations.
Exercise
2. Possible errors: Interview is not a suitable method to
collect sensitive data. Only conservative answers Exercise 17A (p. 123)
might be obtained.
Improvements: Anonymous questionnaires should be Level 1
used. 1. (a) systematic sampling
(b) stratified random sampling
3. Possible errors: Low response rate may be resulted (c) simple random sampling
because questionnaires may be sent to wrong targets. (d) systematic sampling
People with strong opinions about the quality are (e) stratified random sampling
more likely to return the questionnaire and may bias (f) non-probability sampling
the results.
Improvements: Questionnaires should be sent to the users 2. (a) interview / questionnaire
only. (b) experiment
(c) questionnaire
4. Possible errors: Low validity of results as (d) observation
experiments are carried out on different appliances. (e) statistical publication / the Internet
Improvements: Experiments should be carried out on the (f) interview / questionnaire
same appliance. (g) experiment
(h) statistical publication / the Internet

Follow-up Exercise 25 4 1
3. (a) P (select a book) = × =
100 100 100
p. 115 (b) simple random sampling
(a) systematic sampling 4. (a) All the vehicles using the highway in a day.
(b) stratified random sampling (b) observation
(c) simple random sampling
(d) non-probability sampling
Level 2
p. 118 5. (a) Simple random sampling. Assign a number to each
student in the school (or use their unique student
(a) Average number of people waiting at a bus stop (or any numbers) and then randomly select 300 students for
other reasonable answers) the survey.
(b) Customer’s opinion of a shopping mall (or any other
Certificate Mathematics in Action Full Solutions 5B

300 3 staff levels as the stratifying variable should be used.

(b) P (select a student) = =
1000 10
(c) interview / questionnaire
6. (a) We can use age, sex, occupation, marital status or
educational background as a stratifying variable,
since all these factors may affect the income of an
individual. An individual can only process one
property in all these stratifying variables, e.g. male or
female, single or married, etc.
(b) interview / questionnaire
7. (a) With the presence of the observer, the group behaviour
can change and give a biased result. The observer
should observe passively.
(b) The sampling method is biased because members of the
population do not have the same chance of being
selected. Simple random sampling on the whole
population should be used.
(c) The sampling method is misused because car-owners
and non car-owners may have different opinions.
Stratified random sampling should be used to give a
better result.
5. Although the sample has covered 100 000 people of the
population, the readers of the News Digest are mainly
middle class. As a result, the sample is biased. Also,
people having a strong opinion about the election, such as
those did not like Mr. Lo, were more likely to return their
ballots.
6. First of all, the data are presented poorly. They are divided
into too many groups, which are both time-consuming for
data tabulation and difficult in studying distribution. A
frequency polygon with fewer groups should be used to
present the data. Secondly, the conclusion is not very
significant. Only 16 students, just more than half, have
school bags heavier than 6.2 kg. The conclusion should
point out the weights of the school bags lie between 5.0 kg
and 7.3 kg, with most of them lie between 5.6 kg and 6.7
kg.
7. The statement is not quite valid. The car manufacturer
regards the customers who did not give a negative
response as ‘satisfied’ customers. This would mislead and
give a wrong impression to the customers.

Revision Exercise 17 (p. 131) Multiple Choice Questions (p. 133)

Level 1 1. Answer: C
1. (a) simple random sampling
(b) systematic sampling 2. Answer: B
(c) stratified random sampling
(d) stratified random sampling 3. Answer: A

2. (a) interview / questionnaire 4. Answer: C

(b) interview / questionnaire 6
(c) experiment Number of boys = 50 ×
6 +4
(d) questionnaire
(e) statistical publication / the Internet 6
= 50 ×
(f) statistical publication / the Internet 10
= 30
3. (a) simple random sampling
(b) (i) stratified random sampling
(ii) 5. Answer: B
375 Interview is not suitable for collecting sensitive data.
Number of male staff = × 200 = 75
375 + 625 Observation is not suitable to collect qualitative data.
∴ Only II is suitable.
625
Number of female staff = × 200 =6.125Answer: A
375 + 625
125 1 For I and II, all the customers would have equal chance to
(iii) P (female staff) = = be selected while III would not.
625 5
∴ I and II would give a good representative sample.

Level 2
4. The income of staff at different levels are likely to be
different. The sample selected by simple random sampling
may not be proportional to the population and thus biases
the result. In this case, stratified random sampling with
7. Answer: D
For I and II, the stratifying variable can stratify the
students into only one stratum.
For III, since a student can have more than one club and
society membership, therefore it cannot stratify the
 17 Uses and Abuses of Statistics

students into only one stratum.

∴ Only I and II are appropriate stratifying variables.

8. Answer: D
For I, II and III, they are all possible reasons.