Math 1040 Skittles Term Project

Introduction:
For this project each student in the class was asked to go buy a 2.17- ounce bag of
Skittles and send a tally of each color to the professor. With this information he would
compile a data set with all the students data. From there we would each organize and
analyze the data to better draw conclusions using confidence intervals and hypothesis
tests. The assignment was done in three parts, Data Collection, Organizing of
Categorical Data and Organizing of Quantitative Data, and Confidence Interval
Estimates and Hypothesis Testing, with a short reflection about what this assignment
has taught us.
Data Collection:
For this section you must only count whole candies and you must use the Original
Skittles 2.17 ounce bag.

My Total
Class Totals
(27 bags)

Number of

Number of

Number of

Number of

Number of

red candies

orange

yellow

green candies

purple

11
317

candies
16
346

candies
12
321

12
352

candies
9
298

Total

1634

Organizing and Displaying Categorical Data: Colors

First thing I would like to do is determine the proportion of each color within the overall
sample gathered by the class. To do this I will make both a Pie Chart and a Pareto Chart
for the numbers of candies of each color.

Skittles
Purple ; 18%

Red; 19%

Green; 22%

Orange; 21%

Yellow; 20%
Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Purple

For me, the Pie Chart really showed what I expected it to. All the colors look pretty
evenly distributed between each bag. However the Pareto Chart shows a little better
what youre really dealing with. The colors are not even, my guess is that Mars Candy
Corp puts the most liked colors in each bag, instead of separating it evenly. Most people
do not like purple so I feel like that is why there are less.
Organizing and Displaying Quantitative Data: Number of Candies per Bag
Here we are interested in finding the mean number of candies per bag. For this I will use
the total number of bags as my sample size variable. Using the total number of candies
in each bag in the sample, I will calculate the mean, standard deviation, and 5-number
summary. And will display my findings in a histogram and boxplot.

Frequency Distribution
Number of Candies per Bag
Frequency
52-54

55-57

58-60

61-63

11

64-66

Chart Title
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
52-54

55-57

58-60

61-63

64-66

Boxplot
68

66

64

62

60

58

56

54

52

50

Mean: 1634
Standard Deviation: 2.48

5 Number Summary:
Min: 54
Q1: 59
Q2: 61
Q3: 62
Max: 64
For me the histogram really shows how different some bags of candy can be. I would
love to get mad and say that if I got a bag that contained 54 candies I got ripped off, but
the fact of the matter is that if I get 54 or 64 candies it really isnt that big of a difference.
The distribution seems to be skewed to the left. Which I expected to an extent, I feel that
if we had a larger sample, larger than 27, we would see a normal distribution form.
Between the Categorical and the Quantitative data a feel that it meets what I expected to
see for an outcome. I did expect to see the candies per bag more toward a normal
distribution, but with the sample size we have you can expect for things to not seem as
normal. I think that if I got to choose I would not include a pie chart. While they look
nice, they really hold no value. Something like a Histogram would be fitting for
categorical. I also do not think that I would include a boxplot, besides the fact they are a
true pain in the rear to create, they dont hold a lot of visual benefit in my mind. I think
that histograms and pareto charts would be the best for a project like this.