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Daniel Matson
AP Statistics Pd. 6
Kiker
9/14/14
Data Exploration Mini-Project Statistical Report
After some thought and consideration, for my data I decided to ask people what the
height of their ideal boyfriend/girlfriend would be. The values represent the heights in inches of
peoples ideal significant other. I used inches because most of the answers I got were in feet and
inches, and feet were easier to convert into inches than inches into feet. The population of my
data is students at Austin High School.
I collected my data by texting my friends and posing the question to them, and also
having some friends ask their own friends the question as well. I decided to collect this type of
data because I was curious about what trends I could find among my peers and whether they
preferred taller or shorter people.
The sample size of my data is 30. The 5 number summary of my data is as follows:
minX: 65, Q1: 70, Med: 72, Q3: 73, maxX: 75. I calculated this in my calculator using the 1
variable statistics feature. The mean of the data is 71.3 which I calculated by totaling up all the
heights and then dividing by the total number of heights. The median is 72, which I found in the
5 number summary. The range is 10 which I calculated by subtracting the minimum number, 65,
from the maximum number, 75. The standard deviation of the data is 2.34. I found this by again
using the 1 variable statistics feature on the calculator. The variance of the data is 5.46, which I
found by squaring the standard deviation. Finally, the IQR is 3, which I got by subtracting Q1

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from Q3. There is one outlier in my data, at 65, which I found using the 1.5IQR method, finding
that for a datapoint to qualify as an outlier it must be below 65.5 or above 77.5.
If I add 100 to each number in my data, the 5 number summary changes to minX: 165,
Q1: 170, med: 172, Q3: 173, maxX: 175. I found this again by using the 1 variable statistics
feature on the calculator. The mean has been changed to 171.3, which was found by adding all
the number in the data together and dividing by 30. The median is now 172, which was found in
the 1 variable statistics. The range is still 5, found by subtracting the minimum from the
maximum. The standard deviation is still 2.34 and the variance is still 5.46 which were both
found in the same way as earlier. The IQR is still still, found again by subtracting Q1 from Q3.
The mean and the median were both just 100 more than the original and the standard deviation is
the same as it was in the original data.
By increasing each of my data points by 50% the new 5 number summary is: minX: 97.5,
Q1: 105, med: 108, Q3: 109.5, maxX: 112.5. The new mean is 106.95 and the median is 108,
which are similar to the previous mean and medians in relation to each other, they have always
been roughly the same distance apart. The standard deviation in 3.5 which is higher than the
original data, meaning that this data is more spread out.
Assuming that my data is normal distribution, 0% of my data is more than 5 units above
the mean. 73% of the data is between 3 units below the mean and 2 units above the mean. 3 units
are required to form the top ten percent of the data.
In conclusion, I found that most people preferred tall people, specifically 72 inches tall.
The majority of my data fell between 70 and 73 inches. It wouldve been interesting and helpful
to draw more conclusions if I had also recorded their own height and their gender, t o see

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whether more guys preferred shorter or taller girls, and if girls preferred shorter or taller guys. I
also couldve been able to tell if people preferred that their partner be shorter/ or taller than them,
based on their gender. Some faults that I came across in my data was that sometimes people
answered with a range of heights, but I only recorded one of them. Also some people may have
been more inclined to answer a certain way if they were around other people who were also
answering the question.