Mathematics Homework Help

MTH 245 Project: Making an Informed Decision

Choose one of the following two research scenarios. You will use the same topic for all parts of the project during this course.

• Option 1: Home Values
  • One of the biggest purchases we make in our lifetimes is for a home. How much should we spend on our home? Are we getting good value for our money? In this project, you will identify the cost of a typical home in the location that you want to live. You will investigate whether a particular home provides good value to the buyer.
• Option 2: Benefits of College
  • Are there benefits to attending college? If so, what are they? In this project, you will identify some of the perks that a college education provides. You will also investigate whether the cost of college is justified by your future earning potential

• Choose one of the project topics listed above.
• Create a document and spreadsheet answering all the questions below. Submit your work in Canvas.

1. In a few sentences, state your topic and give a reason why you made this choice.
2. Create a random sample of either 50 homes in the area you want to live or 50 working adults (with or without a college education).
   1. How did you choose these 50 elements of the population? Define the population that you are researching and provide specific details about how you chose the elements for your sample.
   2. What type of random sample did you create? Or is it a convenience sample? Briefly explain the statistical pros/cons of the method you chose.
   3. Do you think there is any bias in your sample?
3. Collect some data for your sample and organize the data in a spreadsheet (you can use Excel, Statcrunch, etc). The data can be made up, but it should be somewhat realistic. You must have at least some data at the RATIO level of measurement.
   1. Option 1: You can use information like zip code, subdivision name, sale price, square footage, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, etc.
   2. Option 2: You can get information like highest school attended, number of years of college, type of college (trade, community, public 4-year, private 4-year), annual salary, cost of your education, college, GPA, etc.
4. Organize the data as necessary and create at least two graphs that summarize your data in an informative way. Use statistical software. Be sure to format and label the visual aids as needed.
5. Use software to compute descriptive statistics for each column of your spreadsheet. Make sure there is a label for each statistic (i.e. Sale Price MEAN: $456,295)
   1. For qualitative data, you can find the mode or compute relative frequencies.
   2. For quantitative data, compute at least the mean, median, range, and sample standard deviation.
6. Choose one quantitative variable. Compute the Five-Number Summary and create a boxplot. Is the distribution of this variable symmetric or skewed? How do you know?
7. Choose a different quantitative variable. Determine whether there are any outliers in the data and explain why or why not.
8. Make up any 3 probability questions about your data and compute the probabilities. You must include at least one conditional probability. Show your work for each answer or provide a brief explanation. For example:
   1. What is the probability that a home in my sample has 3 or more bedrooms?
   2. What is the probability that someone earns less than $40,000 given that they went to college?