Statistical Questioning

Is this a valid statistical question: "How much money do high-school students carry with them?"

• Valid: answers can vary

• Valid: students carry money

• Not Valid: not all students carry money

• Not Valid: answers do not vary

Is this a valid statistical question: "How many quarters equal $10?"

• Valid: answer is always the same

• Not Valid: answers do not vary

• Valid: easy question

• Not Valid: people might not know the answer

Is this a valid statistical question: "How many electoral votes did Barack Obama receive in 2012?"

• Valid

• Not Valid

Is this a valid statistical question: "What percent of US residents think the president is doing a good job?"

• Valid

• Not Valid

"A furniture maker chooses 5 pieces of wood from each batch and tests their moisture content. If any piece exceeds 12% moisture content, the entire batch is sent back." Identify the population.

• The furniture maker

• 5 pieces of wood

• The batch of wood

• The moisture content

"A furniture maker chooses 5 pieces of wood from each batch and tests their moisture content. If any piece exceeds 12% moisture content, the entire batch is sent back." Identify the sample.

• The furniture maker

• The 5 pieces of wood

• The entire batch of wood

• The moisture content

"Students working on a project classify artifacts and assign numbers to each. The counts of different categories is important, so the project director chooses 2% of the artifacts at random and checks the student's work." Identify the population.

• The 2% of the artifacts he checks

• The project director

• The students

• All of the artifacts

"Students working on a project classify artifacts and assign numbers to each. The counts of different categories is important, so the project director chooses 2% of the artifacts at random and checks the student's work." Identify the sample.

• The 2% of the artifacts he checks

• The project director

• The students

• All of the artifacts

"A department store mails a customer-satisfaction survey to people who make credit card purchases. This month, 45,000 people made credit card purchases. Surveys were mailed to 1000 people at random, and 137 returned the survey." Identify the population.

• The 45,000 people who made credit card purchases

• The 1000 who had the survey mailed to them

• The 137 people who returned the survey

• The department store

"A department store mails a customer-satisfaction survey to people who make credit card purchases. This month, 45,000 people made credit card purchases. Surveys were mailed to 1000 people at random, and 137 returned the survey." Identify the sample.

• The 45,000 people who made credit card purchases

• The 1000 people who had surveys mailed to them

• The 137 people who returned the survey

• The department store