By: Zoe Wu 8.

Winter Olympics: Crystal Ball Assignment

PART A / B: Collecting and Graphing

Zoe Wu Thursday, February 18, 2010 2:02:26 PM MT (CA)

 By: Zoe Wu 8.3

Zoe Wu Thursday, February 18, 2010 2:02:26 PM MT (CA)

 By: Zoe Wu 8.3

PART C: Calculating

Gold Mean = 2 Median = 2 Mode = 0 and 4

(0+2+1+4+4+3+0+2+4+0) ÷ 10 0,0,0,1,2,2,3,4,4,4 0,0,0,1,2,2,3,4,4,4

= 20 ÷10
=2 Since we have an even The numbers that appear the
amount of numbers, the most often are 0 and 4.
medians are 2 and 2. To find
the median, find the mean of
these two medians.

(2+2) ÷ 2
=4 ÷ 2
=2

Silver Mean = 3.1 Median = 3.5 Mode = 1 and 4

(4+4+5+3+1+1+1+4+2+6) ÷ 10 1,1,1,2,3,4,4,4,5,6 1,1,1,2,3,4,4,4,5,6

= 31 ÷ 10
= 3.1 Since we have an even The numbers that appear the
amount of numbers, the most often are 1 and 4.
medians are 3 and 4. To find
the median, find the mean of
these two medians.

(3+4) ÷ 2
= 7÷2
= 3.5

Bronze Mean = 3.1 Median = 3 Mode = 1 and 3

(1+1+3+6+2+3+5+6+1+3) ÷ 10 1,1,1,2,3,3,3,5,6,6 1,1,1,2,3,3,3,5,6,6

= 31 ÷ 10
= 3.1 Since we have an even The numbers that appear the
amount of numbers, the most often are 1 and 3.
medians are 3 and 3. To find
the median, find the mean of
these two medians.

(3+3) ÷ 2
=6÷2
=3

Zoe Wu Thursday, February 18, 2010 2:02:26 PM MT (CA)

 By: Zoe Wu 8.3

Total Medals Mean = 8.2 Median = 7 Mode = 7

(5,7,9,13,7,7,6,12,7,9) ÷ 10 5,6,7,7,7,7,9,9,12,13 5,6,7,7,7,7,9,9,12,13

= 82 ÷ 10
Since we have an even amount
= 8.2 of numbers, the medians are 7 The number that appears the
and 7. To find the median, find most often is 7.
the mean of these two medians.

(7+7) ÷ 2
= 14 ÷ 2
=7

PART D: Analyzing

Through the charts, you can easily see that there will be similarities, or very close resemblances between
number values within the mean medians and modes. Based on these numbers, I can give a rough
prediction of how the country of Finland will do during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Because Finlandʼs
mean median and mode for Gold Medals are around 3-4, I still believe that they will get around the same
amount of Gold Medals this year, as they have shown this pattern consistently throughout the years. I
believe this with all the other medals as well. However, for the Total Medals, there are some numbers that
seem to stand out a bit. The 8.2 for example. This average is different from the median and mode of the
total medals, which numbers stand at 7. This happened because there were some years that Finland did
exceptionally well. These numbers can be considered as outliers, and thus can change the mean
drastically. Because the mean is something that is affected by all numbers within the list of numbers, this
change happened. The median and mode for example, did not have this affect because they are not, or
affected very little by outliers within a list of numbers, because they do not commonly need the value of
each number to be determined. However, since we have the two other pieces of information, which
include the median and mode, we can see that the consistency of the number of total medals received
still remains at around 7. So, I believe that during this years Winter Olympics, Finland will again receive
around 7 total medals. I donʼt believe that there are any patterns. If there were patterns, the outliers
wouldnʼt exist. As well, if there were patterns, the mean median and mode would be even more consistent
that what they are now. Itʼs more of a consistency of skill within the Olympics rather than a pattern.
Because of their consistency in skill, they consistently get around 7 total gold medals, or around 3 gold
medals, etc. In my predictions, I tend to look at means/averages first, just to get a general idea of the
countries “earnings”. I then use the other two measure of central tendency to compare with the average,
to get a better sense of the consistency of this team. I think itʼs useful to use all of the measures of central
tendencies, and compare them with each other. This helps because a lot of the time the mean can be
affected in a non-fair/accurate way from things/numbers such as outliers. The limitations of my predictions
is that there is no way to no for sure EXACTLY what the country as a team will get in medals. The only
way that that could ever happen is if they had a set pattern that they had each time. For example: 1972: 3
Golds 1976: 6 Golds 1980: 3 Golds 1984: 6 Golds, etc. But of course, no country sets what medals they
get. The medals come naturally with achievement. So, the limitations of these predictions based on the
measure of central tendencies is that they cannot give you a completely accurate “bang on” for sure
correct answer.

Zoe Wu Thursday, February 18, 2010 2:02:26 PM MT (CA)