Melisa McCoy

Statistics 1040
Skittles Term Project
Skittles Final Project

While participating in this project I found that the total candies have a short frequency range.
Meaning that out of the 20 bags involved, each bag ranges from 50 to 65 candies per bag with
mine having a total of 59 candies. The distribution of the candies resembles a bell shape, which
makes the distribution a normal distribution. The graphs followed my expectations of what I
predicted what I was going to see with the class data, because I knew that each bag of skittles
would have roughly the same amount of candies in each bag. I feel the whole class would agree
with my own data from a single bag of skittles.
This project included both categorical and quantitative variables. Categorical variables are also
sometimes called qualitative variables, and can be put into a countable number of categories or
different groups. They may not have logical order. An example of a categorical chart can be
represented by Pie charts or Bar Charts. They can help us see what percentage of the whole
each category constitutes. The types of calculations for categorical data would be whole
numbers you can count. For example the number of candies that were in each bag of skittles, or
how many class members participated in the project. Quantitative variables can be ordered and
measured. Stemplots, boxplots and histograms are best used with quantitative data. Shapes of
distribution of the observation such as normal distribution, and bell shapes are also part of
quantitative variables. For this project we used quantitative data to find the mean, median, and
ranges of the candies. Often both types of data are explored because of the important
information that both variables contain.

While doing the Skittles project my expectations of the class counts and my own individual counts were
pretty close to what I predicted. It was obvious that the class count was going to be a lot higher than my
own count. However, I didnt expect the colors to be so close to evenly distributed or that purple would
be the smallest count. While this is a small sample of the population of skittles this is a good indication
of what you could expect from a standard size bag of skittles.

1. Total Skittles in Each 2.17 oz. Bag; 20 Bag Sample

a) Mean: 59.8
b) Standard Deviation: 3.3
c) 5 Number Summary-Low: 50
Q1: 59
Q2: 60
Q3: 61
High: 65
2. Histogram:

3. Boxplot:

1) 99% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of yellow candies:
0.18 < p < 0.24

2) 95% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of mean number of candies per
bag:
58.242 < u < 61.358
3) 98% confidence interval estimate for the population standard deviation of number of candies per
bag:
2.413 < std. dev. < 5.254

The 99% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of yellow candies indicates
that we are 99% confident that the true value of the population proportion is contained in the
interval of .18 to .24. This is to say that we are 99% confident that the true value of the
population proportion of yellow candies in each Skittles bag is between 18% and 24%.
The 95% confidence interval estimate for the population proportion of mean number of candies
per bag means that we are confident that the interval of 58.242 < u < 61.358 actually does
contain the true value of the population proportion of the mean number of candies in each
Skittles bag.
The 98% confidence interval estimate for the population standard deviation of number of
candies per bag means that we are 98% confident the interval of 2.413 < std. dev. < 5.254
actually does contain the true value of the population standard deviation for the number of
candies in each bag of Skittles.
A confidence interval is a range of values used to estimate the true value of a population
parameter. Confidence Intervals interprets that we are confident that the interval actually does
contain the true value of the population portion within that range of values. This means that if
we were to select different sample sizes and construct a corresponding confidence interval, it
would actually contain the value of the population portion.

1. In statistics, a hypothesis is a claim or statement about a property of a population. This

claim may or may not be true. A hypothesis test is a procedure for testing a claim about a
property of a population.

2. Use a 0.05 significance level to test the claim that 20% of all Skittles candies are red, using
the entire class data set as your sample.

Since the P value .8414 is greater than the 0.05 significance level then we fail to reject the null
hypothesis because there is insufficient evidence to support the alternative hypothesis.
3. Use a 0.01 significance level to test the claim that the mean number of candies in a bag of
Skittles is 55, using the entire class data set as your sample.

Since the P value .0000 is less than the 0.01 significance level we reject the null hypothesis
because there is sufficient evidence to support the alternative hypothesis.
Reflection
While creating my group and individual Skittles project for Statistics, I learned how this class
applies to real world situations. I found it a bit of a struggle when converting the information
from the class to the project, but it was insightful. The parts I struggled with the most were the
concepts that I didnt fully understand during the class work and applying them to the project. I
also feel more confident when reading a graph or chart, and how I can quickly view if the charts
or graphs have been skewed to make the viewer lean more towards the outcome that the
graph or chart is seeking.
One way I feel this class will help me in future classes is it gave me the ability to always analyze
the information that is presented. I learned about collecting data, analyzing, and coming to a
conclusion. I feel that I will be able to apply these concepts into other classes because many
times in other classes I have been asked to collect data, and compare my information. I have
always struggled with this, but feel I will be more confident in future classes when I am asked to
perform data collection, and analyzing.

It has also helped me to use my best judgment when making a conclusion. Because of these
new acquired skills, I feel more confident in applying this information to real world math
applications when using my problem solving skills.
All in all, I feel very confident that I am walking away from this Statistics class a better person.