Introduction and Sample Proportions

Week 6: February 14 & 17

MATH 685 ~ Topics in Statistical Methods ~ Spring 2005

Class meeting schedule and topics

Monday, February 14 ~	Some sampling stories
Thursday, February 17 ~	Sampling distributions for a sample proportion
Monday, February 21 ~	Sampling distributions for a sample mean

Homework Assignments

1. Due Thursday, February 17

   Required work

   • Review what you have encountered in the past about Binomial distributions, sampling distributions, and sample proportions.

   • Explore the data from the 1971 Draft Lottery for evidence of bias. Include whatever graphical, numerical, and inferential statistical analyses you wish. Be sure to write a clear and concise written summary of your statistical results. Do not include irrelevant analyses.

     Note that the data can be found through links at the following Web site:
     www.amstat.org/publications/jse/datasets/draft.txt.

   Optional work

   • Complete a similar analysis for the 1972 Draft Lottery. Follow the same instructions given above.

2. Due Monday, February 21

   Required work

   • Review what you have encountered in the past about sample means, sampling distributions, and the Central Limit Theorem.
   • Complete the problems listed on the "Sample Proportions Homework" handout.

   Optional work

   • Reanalyze the problems listed on the "Sample Proportions Homework" handout using the "plus four" estimator for a sample proportion.