To begin our skittles project, each class member purchased a bag of original skittles and

submitted the quantity of each color of skittle into stat crunch. This information was then
compiled for each student to use to build their project. This term project is about is about
organizing and analyzing the data found from bags of Skittles. These bite-sized chewy candies
with a colorful candy shell will help us apply the statistic skills we have learned this semester
and use it in a real-life situation. Below is a summary of the information.

Red Orange Yellow Green Purple

Expected 16% 16% 32% 21% 16%
Proportion
Observed 27% 24% 27% 22% 23%
proportion
Does the class data represent a random sample? What would the population
be?
 No, the class data would not represent a random sample. I believe that it would
represent a convenience sample. The word “random” in statistics means random in
statistics specifically means that all members of a population have an equal and
independent chance of being selected. The sample in this case would be the bags that
the class bought and recorded data on. The population would be all the original skittles
bags. This could be worldwide and not limited to our state. It is a convenience sample
because we bought the bags from the most convenient place. Skittles in another
country are not as accessible and therefore do not have an equal chance of being
selected.
Red Orange Yellow Green Purple
Expected 9 9 18 12 9
Amount (My
Bag)
Observed 600 541 613 490 517
Proportion
(Combined
Data)
Reflection
I expected the proportion of skittles to be about the same for each bag. Obviously come can
vary, but the majority will be the same. I believe that there were more yellow skittles in the
majority of the class data. This is most likely because yellow is the most favored color for their
target consumer. There does not appear to be any outliers for this data.
I noticed that my graph tends to be around the same height for all the colors just slightly
different each other. However, my data has a steeper decline of purple skittles than the class.

We then gathered the basic graphing information from the data and created a frequency
chart to determine shape.

Mean # of candies per bag – 58.74

Standard deviation of candies per bag – 3.59
Minimum amount of candies per bag – 51
Q1 – 57
Median – 58
Q3 – 60
Maximum number of candies per bag – 73
Shape of distribution – Skewed left
Did the graph reflect what I expected to see? – No, I expected to see something a bit more
uniform. Although it does seem to be that the majority of the bags have a quantity revolving
around the mean very little bags stray from the mean. As for my data it is what I expected. My
bag had a total of 57 candies where the mean of all the bags Is 58.

Graphs for categorical data – Categorical data AKA qualitative data, is data that can be put into
groups. For example, Hair color, gender, days of the week, colors, etc. Since categorical data is
a description about the data, graphs such as pie charts or bar graphs work best for this type of
data.

Graphs for quantitative data – Quantitative data is data that can be measured or ordered by
definitive numbers. For example, weight, income, number of texts in a day etc.
Box plots and scatter plots work better for quantitative data since it shows bigger changes in
data that goes with numerical data.

Part 4
 99% confidence interval for proportion of yellow candies

N (total number of candies in each bag) = 2761

X (total number of yellow candies) = 613
Z value for 99% = 2.575
P = 613/ 2761= .222

Upper bound - .2424

Lower bound - .2016

99% confidence interval estimate : [.2016,.2424]

Confidence Intervals estimated from a population proportion are used to determine, with the
specified degree of confidence, the proportion of a characteristic found within a population. In
relation to the skittles, I am 99% confident that the proportion of yellow skittles in any bag of
skittles falls between .2016 and .2424.

95% confidence interval for the population mean number of skittles per bag

n = 47
Sample mean – 58.74
S = 3.55
Level of freedom - 46
t alfa/2 = 1.731

Upper bound – 58.74 + 1.731 * 3.55/6.85 = 59.63

Lower bound - 58.74 - 1.731 * 3.55/6.85 = 57.84

95% confidence interval estimate – (57.84, 59.63)

Confidence Interval estimates of the population mean use sample date to extrapolate an
interval with the specified degree of confidence that the mean characteristic of a population
should fall within. In this case, we are 95% confident that the mean number of skittles in any
bag is between 57.84 and 59.63.

PROJECT REFLECTION

this project has been very educational. I feel now that I am more comfortable discussing
proportions, probability, and graphs. This project helped me learn new concepts that can be
used and applied in a real world setting. In this class I have learned practical information that
will aid me in my day to day life such as budgeting, along with my new found excel skills. The
problem solving that I have learned in this class will be useful throughout the rest of my
academic career as well as when I progress into the nursing career.