Chani Thorum

11/12/2018
MATH 1040
ePortfolio Assignment

In the fall Statistics class, we have been tracking and recording simple data from bags of skittles from
the class. Below is the first assignment where we all got a 2.7 oz package and recorded how many colors
of each we had in each individual bag. We then organized that data into different graphs. For parts one
and two, this was mostly data collecting, using graphs to display the info and dipping our toes into the
concepts in future chapters such as the Law of Large Numbers, which we talked about below, as we
answered some mandatory questions about the data.

Below is my individual observation, followed by the class’ observation.

Count Red Count Orange Count Yellow Count Green Count Purple
Total 1357 1368 1420 1258 1337
My Bag 17 12 10 13 8
Class Counts 1340 1356 1410 1245 1329

The graph reflects exactly what I thought I would see. In my opinion, I believe the best Skittles
are the strawberry (red) and apple (green) and they don’t put nearly enough of the more desirable
flavors in the mix of around 60 Skittles in the 2.17 ounce bags. The most unpopular flavor being lemon
(yellow) and that seems to dominate the counts on the graph above.

An outlier I noticed is my bag seemed to go against the class counts and totals. By some miracle
I had 17 strawberry Skittles which I found to be unusually high compared to the rest of the
counts/flavors in my bag. As I take this class I’m trying to think of data and stats in a way that I haven’t
before so I’m not sure I know how to answer how my observation would impact graphics or summaries.
To better visualize this, I put my count totals into a chart and see that even though I feel that strawberry
was most of my bag, in reality, it is only nominally more than the rest.

My Count Class Count

18 1450
16
1400
14
12 1350
10
1300
8
6 1250
4
1200
2
0 1150
Red Count Orange Yellow Green Purple Class Red Class Class Class Class
Count Count Count Count Orange Yellow Green Purple
 Chani Thorum
11/12/2018
MATH 1040
The color totals for the class seem to be almost opposite of what I had in my own bag. With
both graphs side by side, you can see that my purple was lower compared to the class, my green was
higher, yellow was lower, orange seemed to be consistent and my red count was higher.

Class Portion

1. I expect the proportions to be relatively equal. I believe this because I thought they would be
more unequal in my bag and they were all within about 5 candies. I assume that if we increase
the sample size that these differences will even out.

Proportions of each color skittle from the total class sample

Color Red Orange Yellow Green Purple

Percentage 20.1% 20.3% 21.1% 18.6% 19.9%

2.
 Chani Thorum
11/12/2018
MATH 1040

2. Does the class data represent a random sample? Yes, because several students of all classes and
online classes were to get a bag of skittles. This could have been from any store in any city. So,
we would say that it is a random sample. What would the population be? The population is all
the skittles, specifically all 2.17 ounce bags of regular mix skittles (not the tropical or sour
brands) and the sample size are the bags that each of us chose, combined.

For part 3, we did summary stats of the data that we collected. We were learning how to look at
data in many ways that we could still read and make sense of. We used boxplots and histograms to see
if any outliers existed in the data, which could skew your outcomes.
 Chani Thorum
11/12/2018
MATH 1040

For the last group portion, we were learning to take the data and break it down, relevant for the
chapter. We broke down the data into mathematics language such as mean, frequency, finding the
 Chani Thorum
11/12/2018
MATH 1040
critical value of the data as well as upper and lower limits. These skills will help us in the workplace for
the foreseeable future. We are now able to look at data, dissect it and make confidence intervals and
assumptions.
 Chani Thorum
11/12/2018
MATH 1040

As you can see from the data above, we were able to start small with pie charts and graphs
depicting how many colors were in our bags of Skittles and eventually worked out way down to a more
sophisticated way to interpret the data and find answers to questions that would help you in real world
applications, such as confidence intervals, mean, standard deviation, how outliers have an effect on
mean and standard deviation which would effect the outcome and reliability of your data. We learned
how to check the data to make sure that we are getting the best possible answer such as where all
student test scores fall as far as distribution and we can say with 98% confidence that it would lie
between a certain group of number, which has all sorts of real world data use.