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A00lIl0NAL MAIHMAIlCI PROJECTWORK2012

Cool Beautiful Amazing Fun Thats Mathematics. You have been using
Mathematics since young. The language of Mathematics involves numbers. If we are well
versed in this language of numbers, it will be a tool that can help us to make important
decisions in our everyday life.
You have been studying Additional Mathematics since last year. Let us now explore how
Additional Mathematics, in particular the topic Statistics, can help you evaluate your
performance in school.

PART A

Discuss briefly how Statistics can be used in daily life. Include suitable pictures.

PART B

For a start, you would like to apply statistics to help your teacher get a picture of the students
performance in Additional Mathematics in your school.

You plan to carry out this as follows:

1. Get from your Additional Mathematics teacher the TOV marks [ Form 4 End Of Year
results for Additional Mathematics ] for students taking Additional Mathematics in
the SPM examination this year and present the data in a suitable format.

2. Construct a frequency table for the data collected using class intervals of the same
size.

3. Based on the frequency table constructed,

(i) draw THREE types of statistical graphs to represent the data,
[ including the use of ICT ]

(ii) determine THREE measures of central tendencies and discuss briefly on the
best measure of central tendency for the data,

(iii) calculate the following TWO measures of dispersion :





Explain briefly the meaning of each answer.

(a) Carry out your plan and present your findings systematically.

(b) Compare your own TOV mark with the three measures of central tendencies in 3(ii).
Discuss your achievement based on this comparison.



2. STANDARD DEVIATION
[ using formula and ICT ]
1. RANGE

1


PART C

(a) Practice makes perfect.

State a suitable conjecture that relates the number of hours a student spent on doing
exercises in Additional Mathematics to the students score in examination.

To test this conjecture, you did some research on Statistics and found out that the
Pearson correlation coefficient, r, is a suitable statistics for this purpose.

You took down the following notes:






































For a set of coordinates { ( x
1
, y
1
), ( x
2
, y
2
), ( x
n
, y
n
) },

(a) (i) a positive correlation exists between x and y if the value of y
increases when the value of x increases,

(ii) a negative correlation exists between x and y if the value of y
decreases when the value of x increases.

(b) the Pearson correlation coefficient r =
y x
xy
S S
S

where
n
y
n
x
n
y x
S
y x

=


2
2
2
) (
n
x
n
x
S
x

=


2
2
2
) (
n
y
n
y
S
y

=
The Pearson correlation coefficient measures the strength of the linear
relationship that exists between x and y [ weak or strong ] and can take any
value from 1 to 1, that is 1 r 1.
















x
y








Perfect
negative linear correlation
r = 1
No
linear correlation
r = 0

x
y












x
y
x
y





negative linear correlation
1 < r < 0





x
y
Perfect
positive linear correlation
r = 1





x
y

positive linear correlation
0 < r < 1

2


You then plan to carry out the following steps:

1. Interview a sample of 10 15 Form 5 students taking Additional Mathematics
this year regarding the following TWO ASPECTS:

(a) The number of hours each student spent in doing Additional
Mathematics exercises per week on the average,
(b) The respective TOV marks in Additional Mathematics.

Record the data collected in a suitable table with the variable x representing
aspect (a) and variable y representing aspect (b).

2. Plot the points ( x , y ) obtained on the Cartesian plane.
Discuss. [ based on Part C Note 2.].

3. Calculate the Pearson correlation coefficient for the data and interpret the
answer based on the notes.

Carry out your plan systematically and explain briefly whether the data collected
support your conjecture.


(b) Not satisfied with just getting the correlation coefficient, you would now like to get an
equation that relates the number of hours a student spent in doing Additional
Mathematics exercises to the students score in examination, that is an equation that
relates x and y. You did some research in this area and found out that the least
squares regression line is suitable for this purpose.

You took down the following notes:




















For a set of coordinates { ( x
1
, y
1
), ( x
2
, y
2
), ( x
n
, y
n
) },

the least squares regression line of y on x

passes through the point ) , ( y x , where
n
x
x

= and ,
n
y
y

=


has an equation of the form y = mx + c where .
2
x
y x
S
S
m =

3


You then plan to

1. determine the equation of the least squares regression line for the data,

2. draw the least squares regression line on the same axes as the points plotted in
Part C (a) (2)

3. use the least squares regression line drawn to predict the score for Additional
Mathematics of a student who spent 7 hours per week in doing Additional
Mathematics exercises.

(i) Carry out your plan systematically.

(ii) Based on the value of the Pearson correlation coefficient obtained in part (a)
(3), discuss briefly the suitability of the least squares regression line in helping
you to make the prediction.


Further Exploration

Impressed with your skills in applying statistics, your teacher posed to you the following
assignment:

The following table shows some experimental values of two variables, x and y.

x 1.2 2.4 2.8 3.5 3.9 4.3
y 9.13 3.23 2.56 1.83 1.56 1.35

You teacher believed that the two variables, x and y, are related by the equation:




Your teacher would like you to

1. show graphically that the equation correctly describes the relationship between x and
y,

2. determine the values of a and b (i) graphically,
(ii) statistically.

Carry out the task systematically and report your findings.


Reflection

Reflect on Cool Beautiful Amazing Fun of Additional Mathematics through the
project you have carried out.
Express your reflection creatively through poems, songs or drawings.
yx
a
= b, where a and b are constants.