MATH 1040 SKITTLES TERM PROJECT

By Dane Boswell

The overall goal of this project was to be able to apply our statistical methods that
we learned in Math 1040 to understand variability in the production, packaging, opening,
and consuming this imported favorite; Skittles. This candy has come a long way since
1974. Their original inception first started in Britain in 1974, and then was introduced
into North America in 1979. These candies have quickly become a favorite. First, we start
with the data. Every student was required to purchase a standard 2.17 ounce bag, and
count each and every skittle that was inside. We then analyzed the data and will use the
newfound spreadsheet compiled by our professor (which has all the combined number of
skittles from the entire class), and then compare these results to our own bag to better
understand variability.

At first, my thoughts seemed that each bag would be very similar and that the
variability of these candies would not differ very much at all. Upon examination of this
hypothesis, I was correct when comparing one bag to another. However, when you take a
much larger sample size, these results were far less impressive, and variability was
brought back to within a reasonable tolerance.

Categorical Data: Skittle Colors.

First lets start with my bag of candy:

Pie chart: for the entire class:

 From the class grand total of 730 skittles, the similarity between the proportions
of every different color of candy was extremely surprising to me, considering the
differences between my own quantities of skittles and then comparing that data to the
class average, or mean. I got the chance to speak with another student in the class and
compare what she got in her bag to what I got, and the differences were astounding. The
following table will illustrate if we are within the standard deviation of the skittles with
regard to class means and compare quantities in each bag as well as compare the colors.

Results in my bag:

Red Orange Yellow Green Purple Total

9 13 10 10 14 59

Results in class:
Red Orange Yellow Green Purple Total
146 139 140 147 158 700
This is the chart that has all the information regarding the classes skittle count per bag.

This chart is the frequency histogram that is displaying the total number of skittles per
bag per class mate.
Next will be the box plot.
 MY TOTAL CLASS AVERAGE
59 61

Categorical compared to Quantitative Data?

Categorical data is used for items that do not have a logical order. They are
grouped together by category only. For example: street names or names in general, hair
color etc. When you choose to graph these categorical items, you will primarily use bar
graphs or pie charts to display the information. X axis being the item in question, and the
Y axis is the frequency of said item. Quantitative data is the data that is considered when
measuring items. Such as: Height, weight, number of customers in a store etc. The
primary charts used for quantitative data often include Pareto charts, box plots, scatter
diagrams and even histograms.