Math 1040 Skittles Term Project

Nicole Matthews
Mrs. Atkinson
Period 6
25 May 2018
 In this project, I analyzed the proportions of colors of skittles per bag. I began

with a pie chart showing the percentage of colors in 31 bags. I then created a Pareto

chart showing the number of colors in 31 bags of skittles, the purpose of this being

to organize and display categorical data. Next I found the average number of skittles

per bag as well as the standard deviation and 5-number summary, the purpose

being to organize and display quantitative data. Finally, I constructed two

confidence intervals for the proportion of purple candies and the average of candies

per bag and tested two claims with hypothesis tests, the purpose being to have an

assurance of my answers.

The charts mostly show what I expected to see. I expected that the

proportion of red skittles would be the largest and that the proportion of purple

skittles would be the smallest. I did not, however, expect to see that there is a larger

proportion of yellow skittles than orange skittles overall. In my own bag, there was

a larger proportion of orange skittles. I also thought there would be less green than

orange, but the overall proportions say otherwise.

Number of Each Color In My Bag of Skittles:

Red Orange Yellow Green Purple
17 16 10 10 8

Number of Each Color In 31 Bags of Skittles:

Red Orange Yellow Green Purple
470 322 409 371 282
 Proportion of Proportion of
Colors in 31 Bags Colors in My Bag
of Skittles of Skittles

15% Red 13% Red

25% Orange 28% Orange
16%
20% Yellow Yellow
18% Green Green
17% 26%
22% Purple Purple

Colors Amounts in 31 Skittle Bags Pareto

Chart
500

400
Red
300 Yellow

200 Green
Orange
100
Purple
0
Red Yellow Green Orange Purple

Color Amounts in My Skittle Bag Pareto

Chart
18
16
14
Red
12
10 Orange
8 Yellow
6 Green
4
Purple
2
0
Red Orange Yellow Green Purple
 Here we see that the shape of the distribution is roughly normal in the box

plot, but skewed slightly right in the frequency histogram. There are 31 bags in the

sample and my bag had 61 skittles. The overall data agrees with the data from my

bag and I thought the number of skittles per bag would be fairly consistent, so the

roughly normal distribution is what I expected.

Number of Skittles Per Bag

Frequency Histogram
15
Frequency

10

0
58-59 60-61 62-64
Bins: Number of Skittles Per Bag

5-Number
Mean Standard Deviation Summary
59.806 1.138 58
59
60
61
62
 Categorical data are qualities of groups. In this case, the qualities or

categories are the different colors of the skittles. Quantitative data deal with

numerical variables. Variations of pie charts and bar graphs are appropriate for

categorical data because each slice of a pie chart and each bar of a bar graph can

represent a different category. A pie chart would not work with quantitative data

because it shows proportions rather than specific quantities. Line graphs might be

okay to use for categorical data as several different lines can represent the different

categories, but they are probably best used for quantitative data for representing

continuous quantities. Histograms and boxplots are also good for displaying

quantities. A boxplot wouldn’t work for categorical data because it shows the 5-

number summary and is not separated into categories. Calculations involving

proportions make sense to use with categorical data to compare the categories to

each other. Calculations involving averages make sense to use with quantitative data

to find distributions.

A confidence interval specifies a margin that your data should fall inside of

with a certain level of confidence or surety. I am 95% confident that the true

proportion of purple candies will fall between (0.136, 0.168). I am 99% confident

that the true mean number of candies per bag falls between (59.243, 60.370). These

results are consistent with the before seen charts and graphs. Both my bag and the

overall 31 bags proportion of purple candies fall into the 95% confident interval.

However, while the mean of the sample falls into the 99% confidence interval, my

bag’s total number of 61 does not.

 The purpose of hypothesis testing is to calculate whether there is sufficient

evidence to support a hypothesis. The p-value is greater than a 0.01 significance;

therefore I fail to reject the null hypothesis. There is sufficient evidence to conclude
that 20% of all skittles are green. The p-value is smaller than a 0.05 significance;

therefore I reject the null hypothesis. There is insufficient evidence to conclude that

the mean number of candies in a bag of skittles in 56. The results of both tests

coincide with the pie chart of 31 bags that says green make up 20% of the skittles

and with the true mean interval of (59.243, 60.370).

 In order to conduct interval estimates and hypothesis tests for population

proportions, the sample has to be reasonably random, equal to less than 10% of the

population, and large enough to conduct to appropriate tests for confidence interval

and significance. My sample met these conditions.

To conduct interval estimates and hypothesis tests for population means, the

sample must be reasonably random, the data has to come from a normal

distribution or large sample, you have to know the standard deviation, and the

sample has to be smaller than 10% of the population. My sample met these

conditions.

Possible errors that may have occurred are that perhaps the mean was too

high or too low due to outliers in the sample and perhaps the sample was not large

enough to provide resiliency and ensure fairly accurate results. Errors could also

include human errors such as calculating the math incorrectly or miscounting the

number of skittles in the bags. The sampling method could be improved by

increasing the sample amount (n) or by expanding the sampling area by buying

skittles bags from several different stores rather than just one.
 In completing this project, I was really able to use and further develop my

problem solving skills. Statistics has been my hardest class yet and I had a really

hard time trying to complete this project, but my rule number one was to not give

up. I asked several people for help, I consulted the Internet to try and walk myself

through the different sections, and I just took it one step at a time.

I have learned a lot of applicable skills to other areas of my life through this

project. At some point in my life, I do believe I’ll have to make charts or graphs

similar to the ones I made here and I will already know how to make them. While

my chosen career does not specifically use math, knowing these things may help me

with my writing career such as if I need to write about a character that is a math

genius or if I have to use this knowledge to calculate the way things will work in a

world I create.

The writing portion of this project will also help me in future classes. I had to

look closely and actually observe the data and come to conclusions based off of the

data rather than just do the problem. This will help me in every future class I take to

learn better through observation and to build my own unique identity in the way I

interpret the world around me.

I used to think that we only need basic math like addition and multiplication

to get through life managing people and money and things, but now I see that even

the more complicated math has its application to the real world. Even though I

might not specifically apply these things to my life, the trouble I went through to

learn these things will help me learn more in the future and apply myself even when

things are hard.