USING DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS TO SOLVE REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS
Small actions can have big consequences. Consider bicycle gears. Depending on the state of the chain between the foot pedals to the rear wheel, a little effort on the former can mean a large rotation in the latter. The reverse can also be true. There is often a similar relationship in datasets between central tendencies (the core trends) and the variables.
This discussion requires you to apply your knowledge about types of descriptive statistics, specifically, measures of central tendency and measures of variability/dispersion.
RESOURCES
Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.
To Prepare:
- Review the Learning Resources Salkind course text and the document Working With Datasets Job Aid Download Working With Datasets Job Aidfor information about how to complete the tasks identified in the To Prepare and Post activities.
- Practice running descriptive statistics using the Quick Guide Data Set “Q41. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS.xls” and the Check Your Understanding Data Sets “QS41a” and “QS41b”.
- Download the Income Data_50 U.S. States and Washington DC_2013-2018 dataset from the Learning Resources and open the file in Excel.
- Select two states (avoid comparing Hawaii and Connecticut). Compute measures of central tendency (i.e., mean, median, and mode) and measures of variability/dispersion (i.e., range and standard deviation) for the income of two states you selected.
BY DAY 4
Post your response, in which you compare central tendency and variability/dispersion for two states for the complete span of 6 years. What does this comparison indicate? Post tables containing relevant data to support your comparison response.
