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1
Goals
Learning
Objectives
When you have completed
this chapter, you will be
able to:
1LO1
Organize
List ways
datathat
intostatistics
a frequency
is
used. distribution.

FPO

2LO2
Portray
Knowa the
frequency
differences
distribution in a histogram,
between
descriptive frequency
and
polygon, and
inferential
statistics.
cumulative frequency polygon.
LO3 Understand the differ3 Present
ences
between
data ausing
sample
suchand a
graphical techniques as line
population.
charts, bar charts, and pie
charts.Explain the difference
LO4
between qualitative and quantitative variables.
LO5 Compare the differences
between discrete and continuous variables.
LO6 Recognize the levels of
measurement in data.

Barnes & Noble stores recently began selling the Nook. With this
device, you can download over 1,500 books electronically and read
the book on a small monitor instead of purchasing the book. Assume
you have the number of Nooks sold each day for the last month at the
Barnes & Noble store at the Market Commons Mall in Riverside,
California. Describe a condition in which this information could be
considered a sample. Illustrate a second situation in which the same
data would be regarded as a population. (See Exercise 11 and LO3.)

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1.1 Introduction
More than 100 years ago, H. G. Wells, an English author and historian, suggested
that one day quantitative reasoning will be as necessary for effective citizenship as
the ability to read. He made no mention of business because the Industrial Revolution was just beginning. Mr. Wells could not have been more correct. While business experience, some thoughtful guesswork, and intuition are key
attributes of successful managers, todays business problems tend to
be too complex for this type of decision making alone.
One of the tools used to make decisions is statistics. Statistics is
used not only by businesspeople; we all also apply statistical concepts
in our lives. For example, to start the day you turn on the shower and
let it run for a few moments. Then you put your hand in the shower to
sample the temperature and decide to add more hot water or more cold
water, or determine that the temperature is just right and then enter the
shower. As a second example, suppose you are at Costco Wholesale
and wish to buy a frozen pizza. One of the pizza makers has a stand,
and they offer a small wedge of their pizza. After sampling the pizza, you
decide whether to purchase the pizza or not. In both the shower and pizza examples,
you make a decision and select a course of action based on a sample.
Businesses face similar situations. The Kellogg Company must ensure that the
mean amount of Raisin Bran in the 25.5-gram box meets label specifications. To do
so, it sets a target weight somewhat higher than the amount specified on the label.
Each box is then weighed after it is filled. The weighing machine reports a distribution of the content weights for each hour as well as the number kicked-out for
being under the label specification during the hour. The Quality Inspection Department also randomly selects samples from the production line and checks the quality of the product and the weight of the contents of the box. If the mean product
weight differs significantly from the target weight or the percent of kick-outs is too
large, the process is adjusted.
As a student of business or economics, you will need basic knowledge and
skills to organize, analyze, and transform data and to present the information. In this
text, we will show you basic statistical techniques and methods that will develop
your ability to make good personal and business decisions.

statistics is used.

1.2 Why Study Statistics?

Examples of why we
study statistics

If you look through your university catalog, you will find that statistics is required
for many college programs. Why is this so? What are the differences in the statistics courses taught in the Engineering College, the Psychology or Sociology
Departments in the Liberal Arts College, and the College of Business? The biggest
difference is the examples used. The course content is basically the same. In the
College of Business we are interested in such things as profits, hours worked, and
wages. Psychologists are interested in test scores, and engineers are interested
in how many units are manufactured on a particular machine. However, all three
are interested in what is a typical value and how much variation there is in the
data. There may also be a difference in the level of mathematics required. An engineering statistics course usually requires calculus. Statistics courses in colleges
of business and education usually teach the course at a more applied level. You
should be able to handle the mathematics in this text if you have completed high
school algebra.
So why is statistics required in so many majors? The first reason is that numerical information is everywhere. Look in the newspapers (USA Today), news magazines (Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report), business magazines (BusinessWeek, Forbes), or general interest magazines (People), womens magazines

LO1 List ways that

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(Ladies Home Journal or Elle), or sports magazines (Sports Illustrated, ESPN The
Magazine), and you will be bombarded with numerical information.
Here are some examples:
The average increase in weekly earnings, in 198284 dollars, from January 2009
to January 2010 was $8.32.
In January 2010 the average amount of credit card debt per household was
$7,394. This is a decrease from $7,801 in July 2009. A 2010 Federal Reserve
survey found that 75 percent of U.S. households have at least one credit card.
The following table summarizes the number of commercial aircraft manufactured
by Boeing, Inc. between 2006 and 2009.
Sales of Boeing Aircraft
Type of Aircraft
Year

737

747

767

777

787

Total

2006
2007
2008
2009

733
850
488
197

72
25
4
5

8
36
29
7

77
143
54
30

160
369
94
24

1,050
1,423
669
263

Go to the following website: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U. It

provides interesting numerical information about countries, business, geography, and politics.
USA Today (www.usatoday.com) prints Snapshots that are the result of surveys conducted by various research organizations, foundations, and the federal
government. The following chart summarizes what recruiters look for in hiring
seasonal employees.

USA TODAY Snapshot

By Jae Yang and Paul Trap, USA TODAY

Source: SnagAJob.com
Reprinted with permission (April 29, 2010) USA TODAY.

A second reason for taking a statistics course is that statistical techniques are
used to make decisions that affect our daily lives. That is, they affect our personal
welfare. Here are a few examples:
Insurance companies use statistical analysis to set rates for home, automobile,
life, and health insurance. Tables are available showing estimates that a 20-yearold female has 60.25 years of life remaining, an 87-year-old woman 4.56 years
remaining, and a 50-year-old man 27.85 years remaining. Life insurance premiums are established based on these estimates of life expectancy. These tables
are available at www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4cb.html. [This site is sensitive
to capital letters.]

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The Environmental Protection Agency is interested in the water quality of Lake

Erie as well as other lakes. They periodically take water samples to establish
the level of contamination and maintain the level of quality.
Medical researchers study the cure rates for diseases using different drugs and
different forms of treatment. For example, what is the effect of treating a certain type of knee injury surgically or with physical therapy? If you take an aspirin
each day, does that reduce your risk of a heart attack?
Statistics in Action
We call your attention to a feature
titleStatistics in
Action. Read each
one carefully to get
an appreciation of
the wide application
of statistics in management, economics,
nursing, law enforcement, sports, and
other disciplines.
In 2009, Forbes
published a list of
the richest Americans. William
Gates, founder of
Microsoft Corporation, is the richest. His net worth
is estimated at
$59.0 billion.
(www.forbes.com)
In 2009, the four
largest American
companies, ranked
by revenue, were
Walmart, ExxonMobil, Chevron,
and General
Electric. (www.
forbes.com)
In the United
States, a typical
high school graduate earns $1.2 million in his or her
lifetime, a typical
college graduate
with a bachelors
degree earns
$2.1 million, and
a typical college
graduate with a
masters degree
earns $2.5 million.
(usgovinfo.about.
com/library/weekly
/aa072602a.htm)

A third reason for taking a statistics course is that the knowledge of statistical
methods will help you understand how decisions are made and give you a better
understanding of how they affect you.
No matter what line of work you select, you will find yourself faced with decisions where an understanding of data analysis is helpful. In order to make an
informed decision, you will need to be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Determine whether the existing information is adequate or additional information is required.

Gather additional information, if it is needed, in such a way that it does not provide misleading results.
Summarize the information in a useful and informative manner.
Analyze the available information.
Draw conclusions and make inferences while assessing the risk of an incorrect
conclusion.

The statistical methods presented in the text will provide you with a framework
for the decision-making process.
In summary, there are at least three reasons for studying statistics: (1) data are
everywhere, (2) statistical techniques are used to make many decisions that affect
our lives, and (3) no matter what your career, you will make professional decisions
that involve data. An understanding of statistical methods will help you make these
decisions more effectively.

1.3 What Is Meant by Statistics?

How do we define the word statistics? We encounter it frequently in our everyday
language. It really has two meanings. In the more common usage, statistics refers
to numerical information. Examples include the average starting salary of college
graduates, the number of deaths due to alcoholism last year, the change in the Dow
Jones Industrial Average from yesterday to today, and the number of home runs hit
by the Chicago Cubs during the 2010 season. In these examples, statistics are a
value or a percentage. Other examples include:
The typical automobile in the United States travels 11,099 miles per year, the
typical bus 9,353 miles per year, and the typical truck 13,942 miles per year.
In Canada, the corresponding information is 10,371 miles for automobiles,
19,823 miles for buses, and 7,001 miles for trucks.
The mean time waiting for technical support is 17 minutes.
The mean length of the business cycle since 1945 is 61 months.
The above are all examples of statistics. A collection of numerical information is
called statistics (plural).
We frequently present statistical information in a graphical form. A graph is often
useful for capturing reader attention and to portray a large amount of information.
For example, Chart 11 shows Frito-Lay volume and market share for the major
snack and potato chip categories in supermarkets in the United States. It requires
only a quick glance to discover there were nearly 800 million pounds of potato
chips sold and that Frito-Lay sold 64 percent of that total. Also note that Frito-Lay
has 82 percent of the corn chip market.

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Potato Chips

64%

Tortilla Chips

75%

Pretzels 26%
Frito-Lay
Rest of Industry

56%

Extruded Snacks

82%

Corn Chips
0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Millions of Pounds

CHART 11 Frito-Lay Volume and Share of Major Snack Chip Categories in

U.S. Supermarkets

The subject of statistics, as we will explore it in this text, has a much broader
meaning than just collecting and publishing numerical information. We define statistics as:
STATISTICS The science of collecting, organizing, presenting, analyzing, and
interpreting data to assist in making more effective decisions.
As the definition suggests, the first step in investigating a problem is to collect
relevant data. They must be organized in some way and perhaps presented in a
chart, such as Chart 11. Only after the data have been organized are we then
able to analyze and interpret them. Here are some examples of the need for data
collection.
Research analysts for Merrill Lynch evaluate many facets of a
particular stock before making a buy or sell recommendation.
They collect the past sales data of the company and estimate
future earnings. Other factors, such as the projected worldwide
demand for the companys products, the strength of the competition, and the effect of the new unionmanagement contract,
are also considered before making a recommendation.
The marketing department at Colgate-Palmolive Co., a manufacturer of soap products, has the responsibility of making recommendations regarding the potential profitability of a newly developed group of face soaps having fruit smells, such as grape,
orange, and pineapple. Before making a final decision, the marketers will test it in several markets. That is, they may advertise
and sell it in Topeka, Kansas, and Tampa, Florida. On the basis of
test marketing in these two regions, Colgate-Palmolive will make
a decision whether to market the soaps in the entire country.
Managers must make decisions about the quality of their product or service.
For example, customers call software companies for technical advice when they
are not able to resolve an issue regarding the software. One measure of the
quality of customer service is the time a customer must wait for a technical
consultant to answer the call. A software company might set a target of one
minute as the typical response time. The company would then collect and analyze data on the response time. Does the typical response time differ by day of
the week or time of day? If the response times are increasing, managers might
decide to increase the number of technical consultants at particular times of
the day or week.

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1.4 Types of Statistics

The study of statistics is usually divided into two categories: descriptive statistics
and inferential statistics.

LO2 Know the

differences between
descriptive and
inferential statistics.

Descriptive Statistics
The definition of statistics given earlier referred to organizing, presenting, analyzing . . . data. This facet of statistics is usually referred to as descriptive statistics.
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS Methods of organizing, summarizing, and presenting
data in an informative way.
For instance, the United States government reports the population of the United
States was 179,323,000 in 1960; 203,302,000 in 1970; 226,542,000 in 1980;
248,709,000 in 1990; 265,000,000 in 2000; and 308,400,000 in 2010. This information is descriptive statistics. It is descriptive statistics if we calculate the percentage growth from one decade to the next. However, it would not be descriptive statistics if we used these to estimate the population of the United States in the year
2020 or the percentage growth from 2010 to 2020. Why? The reason is these statistics are not being used to summarize past populations but to estimate future populations. The following are some other examples of descriptive statistics.
There are a total of 46,837 miles of interstate highways in the United States.
The interstate system represents only 1 percent of the nations total roads but
carries more than 20 percent of the traffic. The longest is I-90, which stretches
from Boston to Seattle, a distance of 3,099 miles. The shortest is I-878 in New
York City, which is 0.70 of a mile in length. Alaska does not have any interstate
highways, Texas has the most interstate miles at 3,232, and New York has the
most interstate routes with 28.
The average person spent $103.00 on traditional Valentines Day merchandise
in 2010. This is an increase of $0.50 from 2009. As in previous years, men will
spend nearly twice the amount women spend on the holiday. The average man
spent $135.35 to impress the people in his life while women only spent $72.28.
Family pets will also feel the love, the average person spending $3.27 on their
furry friends, up from $2.17 last year.
Masses of unorganized datasuch as the census of population, the weekly
earnings of thousands of computer programmers, and the individual responses of
2,000 registered voters regarding their choice for president of the United States
are of little value as is. However, statistical techniques are available to organize this
type of data into a meaningful form. Data can be organized into a frequency distribution. (This procedure is covered in Chapter 2.) Various charts may be used to
describe data; several basic chart forms are also presented in Chapter 4.
Specific measures of central location, such as the mean, describe the central
value of a group of numerical data. A number of statistical measures are used to
describe how closely the data cluster about an average. These measures of central
tendency and dispersion are discussed in Chapter 3.

Inferential Statistics
The second type of statistics is inferential statisticsalso called statistical inference. Our main concern regarding inferential statistics is finding something about a
population from a sample taken from that population. For example, a recent survey
showed only 46 percent of high school seniors can solve problems involving fractions,

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decimals, and percentages; and only 77 percent of high school seniors correctly
totaled the cost of a salad, burger, fries, and a cola on a restaurant menu. Since these
are inferences about a population (all high school seniors) based on sample data, we
refer to them as inferential statistics. You might think of inferential statistics as a best
guess of a population value based on sample information.
INFERENTIAL STATISTICS The methods used to estimate a property of a population
on the basis of a sample.
Note the words population and sample in the definition of inferential statistics. We
often make reference to the population of 308.8 million people living in the United States
or the 1,336.1 million people living in China. However, in statistics the word population
has a broader meaning. A population may consist of individualssuch as all the students enrolled at Utah State University, all the students in Accounting 201, or all the
CEOs from the Fortune 500 companies. A population may also consist of objects, such
as all the Cobra G/T tires produced at Cooper Tire and Rubber Company in the Findlay, Ohio, plant; the accounts receivable at the end of October for Lorrange Plastics,
Inc.; or auto claims filed in the first quarter of 2010 at the Northeast Regional Office of
State Farm Insurance. The measurement of interest might be the scores on the first
examination of all students in Accounting 201, the tread wear of the Cooper Tires, the
dollar amount of Lorrange Plasticss accounts receivable, or the amount of auto insurance claims at State Farm. Thus, a population in the statistical sense does not always
refer to people.
POPULATION The entire set of individuals or objects of interest or the
measurements obtained from all individuals or objects of interest.

LO3 Understand the

differences between a
sample and a
population.

Reasons for sampling

To infer something about a population, we usually take a sample from the

population.
SAMPLE A portion, or part, of the population of interest.
Why take a sample instead of studying every member of the population? A sample of registered voters is necessary because of the prohibitive cost of contacting
millions of voters before an election. Testing wheat for moisture content destroys
the wheat, thus making a sample imperative. If the wine tasters tested all the wine,
none would be available for sale. It would be physically impossible for a few marine
biologists to capture and tag all the seals in the ocean. (These and other reasons
for sampling are discussed in Chapter 8.)
As noted, using a sample to learn something about a population is done extensively in business, agriculture, politics, and government, as cited in the following
examples:
Television networks constantly monitor the popularity of their programs by hiring Nielsen and other organizations to sample the preferences of TV viewers.
For example, in a sample of 800 prime-time viewers, 320, or 40 percent, indicated they watched American Idol on Fox last week. These program ratings are
used to set advertising rates or to cancel programs.
Gamous and Associates, a public accounting firm, is conducting an audit of
Pronto Printing Company. To begin, the accounting firm selects a random sample of 100 invoices and checks each invoice for accuracy. There is at least one
error on five of the invoices; hence the accounting firm estimates that 5 percent of the population of invoices contain at least one error.

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A random sample of 1,260 marketing graduates from four-year schools

showed their mean starting salary was $42,694. We therefore estimate the
mean starting salary for all marketing graduates of four-year institutions to be
$42,694.
The relationship between a sample and a population is portrayed below. For
example, we wish to estimate the mean miles per gallon of SUVs. Six SUVs are
selected from the population. The mean MPG of the six is used to estimate MPG
for the population.
Population
All items

We strongly suggest you

do the Self-Review
exercise.

Self-Review 11

Sample
Items selected
from the population

Following is a self-review problem. There are a number of them interspersed

throughout each chapter. They test your comprehension of the preceding material.
The answer and method of solution are given at the end of the chapter. You can
find the answer to the following Self-Review on page 19. We recommend that you
solve each one and then check your answer.

The answers are at the end of the chapter.

The Atlanta-based advertising firm, Brandon and Associates, asked a sample of 1,960
consumers to try a newly developed chicken dinner by Boston Market. Of the 1,960
sampled, 1,176 said they would purchase the dinner if it is marketed.
(a) What could Brandon and Associates report to Boston Market regarding acceptance of
the chicken dinner in the population?
(b) Is this an example of descriptive statistics or inferential statistics? Explain.

1.5 Types of Variables

Qualitative variable

LO4 Explain the

difference between
qualitative and
quantitative variables.

There are two basic types of variables: (1) qualitative and (2) quantitative (see Chart
12). When the characteristic being studied is nonnumeric, it is called a qualitative variable or an attribute. Examples of qualitative variables are gender, religious
affiliation, type of automobile owned, state of birth, and eye color. When the data
are qualitative, we are usually interested in how many or what percent fall in each
category. For example, what percent of the population has blue eyes? What percent of the total number of cars sold last month were SUVs? Qualitative data are
often summarized in charts and bar graphs (Chapter 2).

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Types of Variables

Qualitative

Brand of PC
Marital status
Hair color

Quantitative

Discrete

Continuous

Children in a family
Strokes on a golf hole
TV sets owned

Amount of income
tax paid
Weight of a student
Yearly rainfall in
Tampa, FL

CHART 12 Summary of the Types of Variables

Quantitative variable

LO5 Compare the

differences between
discrete and continuous
variables.

When the variable studied can be reported numerically, the variable is called a
quantitative variable. Examples of quantitative variables are the balance in your
checking account, the ages of company presidents, the life of an automobile battery (such as 42 months), and the number of children in a family.
Quantitative variables are either discrete or continuous. Discrete variables can
assume only certain values, and there are gaps between the values. Examples of
discrete variables are the number of bedrooms in a house (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), the number of cars arriving at Exit 25 on I-4 in Florida near Walt Disney World in an hour
(326, 421, etc.), and the number of students in each section of a statistics course
(25 in section A, 42 in section B, and 18 in section C). We count, for example, the
number of cars arriving at Exit 25 on I-4, and we count the number of statistics students in each section. Notice that a home can have 3 or 4 bedrooms, but it cannot have 3.56 bedrooms. Thus, there is a gap between possible values. Typically,
discrete variables result from counting.
Observations of a continuous variable can assume any value within a specific
range. Examples of continuous variables are the air pressure in a tire and the weight
of a shipment of tomatoes. Other examples are the amount of raisin bran in a box
and the duration of flights from Orlando to San Diego. Grade point average (GPA)
is a continuous variable. We could report the GPA of a particular student as
3.2576952. The usual practice is to round to 3 places3.258. Typically, continuous
variables result from measuring.

LO6 Recognize the

levels of measurement
in data.

1.6 Levels of Measurement

Data can be classified according to levels of measurement. The
level of measurement of the data dictates the calculations that
can be done to summarize and present the data. It will also determine the statistical tests that should be performed. For example,
there are six colors of candies in a bag of M&Ms. Suppose we
assign brown a value of 1, yellow 2, blue 3, orange 4, green 5,
and red 6. From a bag of candies, we add the assigned color values and divide by the number of candies and report that the mean
color is 3.56. Does this mean that the average color is blue or
orange? Of course not! As a second example, in a high school
track meet there are eight competitors in the 400-meter run. We

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report the order of finish and that the mean finish is 4.5. What does the mean finish tell us? Nothing! In both of these instances, we have not properly used the level
of measurement.
There are actually four levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and
ratio. The lowest, or the most primitive, measurement is the nominal level. The highest, or the level that gives us the most information about the observation, is the
ratio level of measurement.
Statistics in Action
Where did statistics
get its start? In 1662
John Graunt published an article
called Natural and
Political Observations Made upon
Bills of Mortality.
The authors observations were the result of a study and
analysis of a weekly
church publication
called Bill of Mortality, which listed
births, christenings,
and deaths and their
causes. Graunt realized that the Bills of
Mortality represented only a fraction of all births and
deaths in London.
However, he used the
data to reach broad
conclusions about the
impact of disease,
such as the plague,
on the general population. His logic is an
example of statistical
inference. His analysis and interpretation
of the data are
thought to mark the
start of statistics.

Nominal-Level Data
For the nominal level of measurement, observations of a qualitative variable can only
be classified and counted. There is no particular order to the labels. The classification of the six colors of M&Ms milk chocolate candies is an example of the nominal level of measurement. We simply classify the candies by color. There is no natural order. That is, we could report the brown candies first, the orange first, or any
of the colors first. Gender is another example of the nominal level of measurement.
Suppose we count the number of students entering a football game with a student
ID and report how many are men and how many are women. We could report either
the men or the women first. For the nominal level, the only measurement involved
consists of counts. Sometimes, for better reader understanding, we convert these
counts to percentages. The following Snapshot from USA Today shows the results
from a survey of workers. The variable of interest is Perks and there are five possible outcomes: More money, Better healthcare, Better retirement, Work/
family balance, and, we will assume, Other. The outcome Other is not shown
on the chart, but is necessary to make the percent of respondents total 100 percent.
There is no natural order to the outcomes, we could have put Better healthcare
first instead of More money.
To process the data, such as the information regarding worker perks, or information on gender, employment by industry, or state of birth of a student, we often
numerically code the information. That is, we assign students from Alabama a code
of 1, Alaska a code of 2, Arizona as 3, and so on. Using this procedure, Wisconsin is coded 49 and Wyoming 50. This coding facilitates counting by a computer.
However, because we have assigned numbers to the various categories, this does
not give us license to manipulate the numbers. To explain, 1 2 does not equal 3;
that is, Alabama Alaska does not yield Arizona.
To summarize, the nominal level has the following properties:
1.
2.

The variable of interest is divided into categories or outcomes.

There is no natural order to the outcomes.

USA TODAY Snapshot

03/15/2007-updated 11:51 PM ET

Workers say they

prefer higher salaries
to any other perks.

By Anne R. Carey and Chad Palmer, USA Today

Source: hudson-index.com
Reprinted with permission (March 15, 2007) USA TODAY.

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What Is Statistics?

Ordinal-Level Data
The next higher level of data is the ordinal level. Table 11 lists the student ratings
of Professor James Brunner in an Introduction to Finance course. Each student in the
class answered the question Overall, how did you rate the instructor in this class?
The variable rating illustrates the use of the ordinal scale of measurement. One classification is higher or better than the next one. That is, Superior is better than
Good, Good is better than Average, and so on. However, we are not able to
distinguish the magnitude of the differences between groups. Is the difference
between Superior and Good the same as the difference between Poor and Inferior? We cannot tell. If we substitute a 5 for Superior and a 4 for Good, we can
conclude that the rating of Superior is better than the rating of Good, but we cannot add a ranking of Superior and a ranking of Good, with the result being meaningful. Further we cannot conclude that a rating of Good (rating is 4) is necessarily
twice as high as a Poor (rating is 2). We can only conclude that a rating of Good
is better than a rating of Poor. We cannot conclude how much better the rating is.
TABLE 11 Rating of a Finance Professor
Rating

Frequency

Superior
Good
Average
Poor
Inferior

6
28
25
12
3

Another example of ordinal-level data is the Homeland Security

Advisory System. The Department of Homeland Security publishes this
information regarding the risk of terrorist activity to federal, state, and
local authorities and to the American people. The five risk levels from
lowest to highest, including a description and color codes, are shown
to the left.
This is an example of the ordinal scale because we know the
order or the ranks of the risk levelsthat is, orange is higher than
yellowbut the amount of the difference in risk is not necessarily the
same. To put it another way, the difference in the risk level between
yellow and orange is not necessarily the same as between green and
blue.
In summary, the properties of the ordinal level of data are:
1.
2.

Data classifications are represented by sets of labels or names

(high, medium, low) that have relative values.
Because of the relative values, the data classified can be ranked
or ordered.

Interval-Level Data
The interval level of measurement is the next highest level. It includes all the
characteristics of the ordinal level, but in addition, the difference between values is a constant size. An example of the interval level of measurement is temperature. Suppose the high temperatures on three consecutive winter days in
Boston are 28, 31, and 20 degrees Fahrenheit. These temperatures can be easily ranked, but we can also determine the difference between temperatures. This
is possible because 1 degree Fahrenheit represents a constant unit of measurement. Equal differences between two temperatures are the same, regardless of
their position on the scale. That is, the difference between 10 degrees Fahrenheit

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and 15 degrees is 5, the difference between 50 and 55 degrees is also 5 degrees.

It is also important to note that 0 is just a point on the scale. It does not represent the absence of the condition. Zero degrees Fahrenheit does not represent
the absence of heat, just that it is cold! In fact 0 degrees Fahrenheit is about 18
degrees on the Celsius scale.
Another example of the interval scale of measurement is womens dress sizes.
Listed below is information on several dimensions of a standard U.S. womens dress.
Size

Bust (in)

Waist (in)

Hips (in)

8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28

32
34
36
38
40
42
44
46
48
50
52

24
26
28
30
32
34
36
38
40
42
44

35
37
39
41
43
45
47
49
51
53
55

Why is the size scale an interval measurement? Observe as the size changes
by 2 units (say from size 10 to size 12 or from size 24 to size 26) each of the
measurements increases by 2 inches. To put it another way, the intervals are the
same.
There is no natural zero point for dress size. A size 0 dress does not have
zero material. Instead, it would have a 24-inch bust, 16-inch waist, and 27-inch
hips. Moreover, the ratios are not reasonable. If you divide a size 28 by a size 14,
you do not get the same answer as dividing a size 20 by 10. Neither ratio is equal
to two as the size number would suggest. In short, if the distances between the
numbers make sense, but the ratios do not, then you have an interval scale of
measurement.
The properties of the interval-level data are:
1.
2.

Data classifications are ordered according to the amount of the characteristic

they possess.
Equal differences in the characteristic are represented by equal differences in
the measurements.

Ratio-Level Data
Practically all quantitative data is recorded on the ratio level of measurement. The
ratio level is the highest level of measurement. It has all the characteristics of
the interval level, but in addition, the 0 point is meaningful and the ratio between
two numbers is meaningful. Examples of the ratio scale of measurement include
wages, units of production, weight, changes in stock prices, distance between
branch offices, and height. Money is a good illustration. If you have zero dollars,
then you have no money. Weight is another example. If the dial on the scale of a
correctly calibrated device is at 0, then there is a complete absence of weight. The
ratio of two numbers is also meaningful. If Jim earns $40,000 per year selling insurance and Rob earns $80,000 per year selling cars, then Rob earns twice as much
as Jim.
Table 12 illustrates the use of the ratio scale of measurement. It shows the
incomes of four father-and-son combinations.

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TABLE 12 FatherSon Income Combinations

Name

Father

Son

Lahey
Nale
Rho
Steele

$80,000
90,000
60,000
75,000

$ 40,000
30,000
120,000
130,000

Observe that the senior Lahey earns twice as much as his son. In the Rho family, the son makes twice as much as the father.
In summary, the properties of the ratio-level data are:
1.
2.
3.

Data classifications are ordered according to the amount of the characteristics

they possess.
Equal differences in the characteristic are represented by equal differences in
the numbers assigned to the classifications.
The zero point is the absence of the characteristic and the ratio between two
numbers is meaningful.

Chart 13 summarizes the major characteristics of the various levels of

measurement.
Levels of Measurement

Nominal

Ordinal

Interval

Ratio

Data may only be

classified

Data are ranked

Meaningful difference
between values

Meaningful 0 point and

ratio between values

Jersey numbers
of football players
Make of car

Your rank in class

Team standings in
the Pac-10

Temperature
Dress size

Number of patients
seen
Number of sales
calls made
Distance to class

CHART 13 Summary of the Characteristics for Levels of Measurement

Self-Review 12

What is the level of measurement reflected by the following data?

(a) The age of each person in a sample of 50 adults who listen to one of the 1,230 talk
radio stations in the United States is:
35
30
47
44
35
(b)

29
36
37
39
37

41
41
41
35
38

34
39
27
35
43

44
44
33
41
40

46
39
33
42
48

42
43
39
37
42

42
43
38
42
31

37
44
43
38
51

47
40
22
43
34

In a survey of 200 luxury-car owners, 100 were from California, 50 from New York, 30
from Illinois, and 20 from Ohio.

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Exercises
The answers to the odd-numbered exercises are at the end of the book.
1.

2.

3.
4.

What is the level of measurement for each of the following variables?

a. Student IQ ratings.
b. Distance students travel to class.
c. The jersey numbers of a sorority soccer team.
d. A classification of students by state of birth.
e. A summary of students by academic classthat is, freshman, sophomore, junior, and
senior.
f. Number of hours students study per week.
What is the level of measurement for these items related to the newspaper business?
a. The number of papers sold each Sunday during 2011.
b. The departments, such as editorial, advertising, sports, etc.
c. A summary of the number of papers sold by county.
d. The number of years with the paper for each employee.
Look in the latest edition of USA Today or your local newspaper and find examples of
each level of measurement. Write a brief memo summarizing your findings.
For each of the following, determine whether the group is a sample or a population.
a. The participants in a study of a new cholesterol drug.
b. The drivers who received a speeding ticket in Kansas City last month.
c. Those on welfare in Cook County (Chicago), Illinois.
d. The 30 stocks reported as a part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

1.7 Ethics and Statistics

Following events such as Wall Street money manager Bernie Madoffs Ponzi scheme,
which swindled billions from investors, and financial misrepresentations by Enron and
Tyco, business students need to understand that these events were based on the
misrepresentation of business and financial data. In each case, people within each
organization reported financial information to investors that indicated the companies
were performing much better than the actual situation. When the true financial information was reported, the companies were worth much less than advertised. The result
was many investors lost all or nearly all of the money they put into these companies.
The article Statistics and Ethics: Some Advice for Young Statisticians, in The
American Statistician 57, no. 1 (2003), offers guidance. The authors advise us to practice statistics with integrity and honesty, and urge us to do the right thing when
collecting, organizing, summarizing, analyzing, and interpreting numerical information.
The real contribution of statistics to society is a moral one. Financial analysts need
to provide information that truly reflects a companys performance so as not to mislead individual investors. Information regarding product defects that may be harmful
to people must be analyzed and reported with integrity and honesty. The authors of
The American Statistician article further indicate that when we practice statistics, we
need to maintain an independent and principled point-of-view.
As you progress through this text, we will highlight ethical issues in the collection, analysis, presentation, and interpretation of statistical information. We also hope
that, as you learn about using statistics, you will become a more informed consumer
of information. For example, you will question a report based on data that do not
fairly represent the population, a report that does not include all relevant statistics,
one that includes an incorrect choice of statistical measures, or a presentation that
introduces the writers bias in a deliberate attempt to mislead or misrepresent.

1.8 Computer Applications

Computers are now available to students at most colleges and universities.
Spreadsheets, such as Microsoft Excel, and statistical software packages, such
as Minitab, are available in most computer labs. The Microsoft Excel package is

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bundled with many home computers. In this text, we use both Excel and Minitab
for the applications. We also use an Excel add-in called MegaStat. This add-in
gives Excel the capability to produce additional statistical reports.
The following example shows the application of computers in statistical analysis. In Chapters 2, 3, and 4, we illustrate methods for summarizing and describing
data. An example used in these chapters refers to profit, as well as other variables,
on each of the 180 vehicles sold last month by the Applewood Auto Group. The
following Excel output reveals, among other things, (1) there were 180 vehicles sold,
the mean (average) profit per vehicle was $1,843.17, and the amount of profit ranged
from $294 to $3,292.

The following output is from the Minitab system. It contains much of the same
information.

Had we used a calculator to arrive at these measures and others needed to

fully analyze the selling prices, hours of calculation would have been required. The

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likelihood of an error in arithmetic is high when a large number of values are concerned. On the other hand, statistical software packages and spreadsheets can
provide accurate information in seconds.
At the option of your instructor, and depending on the software system available, we urge you to apply a computer package to the exercises in the Data Set
Exercises section in each chapter. It will relieve you of the tedious calculations and
allow you to concentrate on data analysis.

Chapter Summary
I. Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, presenting, analyzing, and interpreting
data to assist in making more effective decisions.
II. There are two types of statistics.
A. Descriptive statistics are procedures used to organize and summarize data.
B. Inferential statistics involve taking a sample from a population and making estimates
about a population based on the sample results.
1. A population is an entire set of individuals or objects of interest or the measurements obtained from all individuals or objects of interest.
2. A sample is a part of the population.
III. There are two types of variables.
A. A qualitative variable is nonnumeric.
1. Usually we are interested in the number or percent of the observations in each
category.
2. Qualitative data are usually summarized in graphs and bar charts.
B. There are two types of quantitative variables and they are usually reported numerically.
1. Discrete variables can assume only certain values, and there are usually gaps
between values.
2. A continuous variable can assume any value within a specified range.
IV. There are four levels of measurement.
A. With the nominal level, the data are sorted into categories with no particular order to
the categories.
B. The ordinal level of measurement presumes that one classification is ranked higher than
another.
C. The interval level of measurement has the ranking characteristic of the ordinal level
of measurement plus the characteristic that the distance between values is a constant size.
D. The ratio level of measurement has all the characteristics of the interval level, plus there
is a 0 point and the ratio of two values is meaningful.

Chapter Exercises
5. Explain the difference between qualitative and quantitative variables. Give an example of
qualitative and quantitative variables.
6. Explain the difference between a sample and a population.
7. Explain the difference between a discrete and a continuous variable. Give an example of
each not included in the text.
8. For the following questions, would you collect information using a sample or a population? Why?
a. Statistics 201 is a course taught at a university. Professor A. Verage has taught nearly
1,500 students in the course over the past 5 years. You would like to know the average grade for the course.
b. As part of a research project, you need to report the average profitability of the number one corporation in the Fortune 500 for the past 10 years.
c. You are looking forward to graduation and your first job as a salesperson for one of
five large pharmaceutical corporations. Planning for your interviews, you will need to
know about each companys mission, profitability, products, and markets.

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9.

10.

11.

12.
13.

d. You are shopping for a new MP3 music player such as the Apple iPod. The manufacturers advertise the number of music tracks that can be stored in the memory. Usually, the advertisers assume relatively short, popular music to estimate the number of
tracks that can be stored. You, however, like Broadway musical tunes and they are
much longer. You would like to estimate how many Broadway tunes will fit on your
MP3 player.
Exits along interstate highways were formerly numbered successively from the western or
southern edge of a state. However, the Department of Transportation has recently changed
most of them to agree with the numbers on the mile markers along the highway.
a. What level of measurement were data on the consecutive exit numbers?
b. What level of measurement are data on the milepost numbers?
c. Discuss the advantages of the newer system.
A poll solicits a large number of college undergraduates for information on the following
variables: the name of their cell phone provider (AT&T, Verizon, and so on), the numbers
of minutes used last month (200, 400, for example), and their satisfaction with the service (Terrible, Adequate, Excellent, and so forth). What is the data scale for each of these
three variables?
Barnes & Noble stores recently began selling the Nook. With this device, you can
download over 1,500 books electronically and read the book on a small monitor instead
of purchasing the book. Assume you have the number of Nooks sold each day for the
last month at the Barnes & Noble store at the Market Commons Mall in Riverside,
California. Describe a condition in which this information could be considered a sample.
Illustrate a second situation in which the same data would be regarded as a population.
Utilize the concepts of sample and population to describe how a presidential election is
unlike an exit poll of the electorate.
Place these variables in the following classification tables. For each table, summarize your
observations and evaluate if the results are generally true. For example, salary is reported
as a continuous quantitative variable. It is also a continuous ratio-scaled variable.
a. Salary
b. Gender
c. Sales volume of MP3 players
d. Soft drink preference
e. Temperature
f. SAT scores
g. Student rank in class
h. Rating of a finance professor
i. Number of home computers

Discrete Variable

Continuous Variable

Qualitative
Quantitative

a. Salary

Discrete

Continuous

Nominal
Ordinal

Interval
Ratio

a. Salary

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14. Using data from such publications as the Statistical Abstract of the United States, The
World Almanac, Forbes, or your local newspaper, give examples of the nominal, ordinal,
interval, and ratio levels of measurement.
15. The Struthers Wells Corporation employs more than 10,000 white collar workers in its
sales offices and manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, and Asia. A sample of 300 of these workers revealed 120 would accept a transfer to a location outside
the United States. On the basis of these findings, write a brief memo to Ms. Wanda
Carter, Vice President of Human Services, regarding all white collar workers in the firm
and their willingness to relocate.
16. AVX Stereo Equipment, Inc., recently began a no-hassles return policy. A sample of
500 customers who had recently returned items showed 400 thought the policy was
fair, 32 thought it took too long to complete the transaction, and the rest had no opinion. On the basis of this information, make an inference about customer reaction to the
new policy.
17. The following table reports the number of cars and light duty trucks sold by the eight
largest automakers in the first two months of 2010 compared to the first two months of
2009.

Year-to-Date Sales
Manufacturer
General Motors Corp.
Ford Motor Company
Chrysler LLC
Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.
American Honda Motor Co. Inc.
Nissan North America Inc.
Hyundai Motor America
Mazda Motor of America Inc.

Through February
2010

Through February
2009

287,242
249,514
141,592
198,823
148,150
132,761
64,507
32,748

252,701
185,825
146,207
226,870
142,606
108,133
55,133
31,821

a. Compare the total sales for the eight automakers. Has there been an increase or a
decrease in sales for 2010 compared to the same period in 2009?
b. Compute the market share for each of the companies. Has there been a large change
in the market share for any of the companies?
c. Compare the percentage increases for each of the eight companies. What significant
changes are there from 2009 to 2010 for each of the companies?
18. The following chart depicts the average amounts spent by consumers on holiday gifts.

Write a brief report summarizing the amounts spent during the holidays. Be sure to
include the total amount spent, and the percent spent by each group.

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19. The following chart depicts the earnings in billions of dollars for ExxonMobil for the period
2003 until 2009. Write a brief report discussing the earnings at ExxonMobil during the period.
Was one year higher than the others? Did the earnings increase, decrease, or stay the same
over the period?

Data Set Exercises

20. Refer to the Real Estate data at the back of the text, which report information on homes
sold in the Goodyear, Arizona, area last year. Consider the following variables: selling
price, number of bedrooms, township, and distance from the center of the city.
a. Which of the variables are qualitative and which are quantitative?
b. Determine the level of measurement for each of the variables.
21. Refer to the Baseball 2009 data, which report information on the 30 Major League Baseball teams for the 2009 season. Consider the following variables: number of wins, team
salary, season attendance, whether the team is in the American or National League, and
the number of home runs hit.
a. Which of these variables are quantitative and which are qualitative?
b. Determine the level of measurement for each of the variables.
22. Refer to the Buena School District bus data, which report information on the school districts bus fleet.
a. Which of the variables are qualitative and which are quantitative?
b. Determine the level of measurement for each variable.

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Answers to Self-Review

a. On the basis of the sample of 1,960 consumers,

we estimate that, if it is marketed, 60 percent of
all consumers will purchase the chicken dinner
(1,176/1,960) 100 60 percent.
b. Inferential statistics, because a sample was
used to draw a conclusion about how all
consumers in the population would react if the
chicken dinner were marketed.

12

a. Age is a ratio-scale variable. A 40-year-old is

twice as old as someone 20 years old.
b. Nominal scale. We could arrange the states in
any order.