Darin Dutson

Prof. Gary Jeppson

Statistics 1040, Term Project
22 November 2014
A confidence interval is an important concept to estimate where a population parameter lies
when given certain values. Confidence intervals can also be used to compare different sets of data and
test some claim made about a population proportion p. If we use confidence intervals correctly, we
would be able to infer important information about entire populations using only samples; given that
our samples would have to be randomly selected and large enough to make accurate calculations.
Without doing much research on the background of factories and production of the Skittles we
experimented with, we basically assume that we received a random sample. The Skittles were gathered
in the state of Utah (probably within Salt Lake County) only, and during the same year of 2014.
In the first test with the yellow candies, we had a rather large sample size consisting of 1500
Skittles, yet very small in relativity to all the Skittles on earth at the present time. This sample was large
enough to understand the probable amount of yellow Skittles candy in present 2.17-ounce bags of
Skittles. (See work below)

Darin Dutson
Prof. Gary Jeppson
Statistics 1040, Term Project
22 November 2014
We also made a confidence interval estimate containing the mean number of Skittles candies per bag.
We know that the distribution is normal, which is why it was possible for us to use only a sample of 25
bags of Skittles. From our sample we were able to determine that the true mean number of candies in
all bags of Skittles is extremely close to 60.

Lastly, we were able to create a confidence interval estimate for the standard deviation for the number
of candies in each bag of Skittles. We learn from this procedure that there is not much of a change in the
number of Skittles per bag to reach that 2.17 ounce weight.

Darin Dutson
Prof. Gary Jeppson
Statistics 1040, Term Project
22 November 2014
A hypothesis test is simply a process we can carry out to test a certain claim about a property of
a population. In these types of tests, we can discover if there is special significance in effects that some
outside factor has on a population. This would mean that we could find out if some kind of variable in a
test could help or hinder a population.
While testing the percentage of red Skittles in the sample size, it was a very close comparison
and we failed to reject the null because there was sufficient evidence that the number of red Skittles
was significantly close to 20%.

On the last hypothesis test, we find that based on our data the average of the bag of Skittles
cannot equal 55. The test statistic lands very far out beyond the critical value. We need to use a sample
size of 25 because the number of bags. We also would use a different standard deviation (5.66) from the
entire sample size based on the sample we are measuring. Please refer to the work on the other page.

Darin Dutson
Prof. Gary Jeppson
Statistics 1040, Term Project
22 November 2014

As mentioned before, there could be a slight discrepancy in the sample size given that it is only 25
instead of 31 or more. Because the distribution may not be entirely normal, there could be a slight error
with the sample size. A small sample size could lead to incorrect information about the confidence
intervals and hypothesis tests. It could have made the hypothesis tests have a smaller test statistic
which can affect the data and results tremendously. Also as aforementioned, this data could be said to
be conveniently gathered, considering the students in the class reside in Utah. To improve the survey,
bags of Skittles could be taken from the different parts of the United States. This way, there may be
Skittles packages that come from different factories. Also if the funds were sufficient, we would be able
to purchase many more bags than 25. If we were able to purchase thousands of bags, we would be able
to gather much more improved results.