Samantha Brucia

MATH 1040 Skittles Project

This semester in math 1040, we did a class project with skittles and applied many of the

sections we were taught in order to interpret the data we collected. Our instructor brought

everyone a bag of skittles on the first day of class in order to get the project started. The results

are as follows.

The first portion of this project we compiled our class data and calculated portions based

on the color of the candies. We also compared our personal bags to the class data.

In discussing the portions of skittles, I expected roughly an even percentage of Skittles

based on everyone’s data. I though this because I figured wherever they make the Skittles in the

Skittles Factory that there would be no reason to make more of a certain color. There is no

advantage to the company, and as a consumer I would be upset if I purchased a bag of original

skittles and almost all of them were one color. I think in order to meet the expectations of the

public and to accurately depict the advertisement on the outside of the bag the company would

aim to achieve an even amount of each color. However, I do understand that that perfectly evenly

distributed colors in each bag is not realistic when the amount of skittles bags that are packaged

each day is such a large amount. That is why I expected roughly an even amount of each color

between the 33 students leaving room for some errors here and there.
Samantha Brucia

Expected v.s. Observed Portions

Count Count Count Count Count

Red Orange Yellow Green Purple

Expected Proportion 20% 20% 20% 20% 20%

Observed Proportion 18.954% 21.098% 19.406% 20.496% 20.045%

*The table above and all the data in this project excludes student 3 and student 34 from the original

data set, being that they are outliers and would inaccurately depict the distribution of skittles

colors.
Samantha Brucia
Samantha Brucia

The definition of a random sample is “The process of using chance to select individuals from a

population to be included in the sample.” I would say it would be very difficult to claim this

represents a random sample, with the population being original skittles bags made and

distributed in Utah. My reasoning behind this is pretty much all the skittles were from the same

store made in one purchase. Considering how many skittles bags are in the state of Utah or even

the united states, this in not random enough.

 Samantha Brucia

My Bag v.s. Class Totals

Proportion Proportion Proportion Proportion Proportion Total

Red Orange Yellow Green Purple Count

My Bag 22.222% 16.666% 22.222% 14.815% 20.074% 108

Class
18.954% 21.098% 19.406% 20.496% 20.045% 2659
Totals

In observing the data and creating the graphs, it is what I had expected to see. Everything

seems to visually represent the data accurately. I did decide to leave out the outliers as mentioned

previously in order to more accurately represent the results. Had I used the outliers it would have

made the graphs look ridiculous. Most students got a total in the 100’s-110’s while student 3 got

a total count in the 300’s! This would definitely skew the data. Especially with the purple

skittles, where most students got 20’s-30’s where student 3 got 96. Having that large of a number

in that category would make it look like there were way more purple skittles than there actually

were. The same goes for student 34 who got a total in the 20’s. These did not make sense to

include in my project, so I left them out. The proportions in my bag were slightly different than

the proportions from the class totals. My red skittles were slightly more or less than the class

totals. This is interesting but I do not think it is a significant difference. I feel it is safe to say my

bag is similar enough to the proportions of the class totals. It seems like the class totals were
Samantha Brucia

close to 20% of each color plus or minus a percent or two, which supports my prediction.

Everything aside from the two outliers was as expected.

Our next section we calculated the mean color of candies, specifically focusing on the

yellow candies. We used the data to calculate a confidence interval in order to fine where the true

mean number of candies lies. The results are as follows.

I calculated the following confidence intervals in my calculator using T interval in order

to give a range estimate of what the true value would be for both yellow skittles per bag, and for

the mean number of Skittles per bag. Based on my calculations on the data collected previously

in the project I am 99% confident that the interval (0.1743, 0.21381) contains the true proportion

of yellow skittles per bag. I am also 95% confident that the interval (107.07, 108.38) contains the

true mean number of Skittles per bag.

The general purpose of confidence intervals is to give an estimated range with a certain level of

confidence, that the true value of whatever you’re calculating should fall in. In this project for

example, we can’t possibly get our hands on every skittles bag in the world to count each candy

and get the counts we are looking for. There are lots of situations like this in life where it would

be impossible to get a hold of such a large sample size of something mass produced, and be sure

you get all of it. In these situations, we use confidence intervals because they work with a

smaller sample and give us a range that we can expect the true value to fall in and apply it to all

of something. For example, the true portion of yellow skittles per bag or the mean number of

candies per bag.

Samantha Brucia

In conclusion, it is statistically significant to say that not all skittles bags are portioned

equally. However, the means are close enough that it is not practically significant to claim there

are more of one color that another. I feel like this is fair, and it is what I expected. No person or

process is perfect, therefor there is always room for some human error. As I stated earlier, I think

the company would aim to achieve an even amount of each color. However, I do understand that

that perfectly evenly distributed colors in each bag is not realistic when the amount of skittles

bags that are packaged each day is such a large amount.