Statistics Detective Review Lab
Recall that an underlined phrase means that it is a link off of the web page itself. The lab can be accessed from
http://www.cs.appstate.edu/~sjg/class/1010/wc/stats/detectives03.html Use the clues below and effective reasoning skills in order to identify the "odd person out" in our class data set. To mark off eliminated people on the computer, be sure that View/Toolbar/Formatting is checked. Use the fill-in feature to eliminate suspects by clicking on the row number (in grey) and then the paint can in the formatting toolbar. You may change fill-in colors by clicking on the arrowhead just to the right of the paint can.

The suspect...

  1. satisfies the statement "was unable to improve their MRT score" (a negative advertising spin).

    Describe the combinations of scores of the people that can be eliminated.



    How many people can you eliminate?

  2. hits the 1st or 3rd quartile (q1 or q3) "on the head" for the number of competitors of the family bathroom. The general command for the jth quartile in the sth column is =quartile(s2:s46,j)

    Which column does the clue apply to?

    What is q1?

    What is q3?

    Describe the kinds of numbers that can be eliminated.



    How many additional suspects can you eliminate?

    How many total people have now been eliminated?

  3. falls within the middle 50% of the class on the boxplot of the distance from home

    Sketch the boxplot here (you should have this in class notes).



    Describe the kinds of distances that can be eliminated.



    How many additional suspects can you eliminate?

    How many total people have now been eliminated?

  4. has a golden mean of (1+sqrt(5))/2 embedded in the forearm to hand ratio within a 0.2 decimal range.

    Compute the golden mean in decimal form and write it down here.

    Describe the kinds of numbers that can be eliminated.

    In Excel, compute the forearm to hand ratios of the remaining suspects (in the second row of an empty column, type =G2/F2     and hit return. Then, go back up to that box, go to the bottom right until you see the symbol that resembles a square with arrowheads on the top left and bottom right corners, click, and pull the mouse down to fill down the column (as we did in the golden mean lab). Now use the clue to eliminate people.

    How many additional suspects have been eliminated?

    How many total people have now been eliminated?
  5. hurts the statistics that show that, on average, women perform more poorly than men on the timed test. Recall that the female timed test average was 1.5, while the male timed test average was 1.8.

    Describe the scores of the men that can be eliminated and explain why.



    How many additional men were you able to eliminate?

    Describe the scores of the women that can be eliminated and explain why.



    How many additional women were you able to eliminate?





    You should now be down to one suspect. Show that your suspect satisfies the following clue.
  6. pulls this regression line for "does armspan predict height" up since the actual height value corresponding to the actual armspan is above the predicted value for the actual armspan given by plugging into the equation of the best fit line.

    What is the equation of the best fit line?

    Compute the predicted value for the actual armspan for your suspect and show work to give evidence that your suspect does indeed satisfy this clue.



Your Suspect Once you have your guess, call me over and show it to me, and have your suspect approved.

Gender______   Armspan______   Height______   Foot Length______   Head Circ______ Hand______  

Forearm______   Class Yr_________________   Siblings______   Home_______  

Major_______________________   Minute______   RealWds______   NonsenseWds______  

Timed MRT______   Untimed MRT______  


Next work on Homer's taxes.