A consumer research magazine has hired you as a consultant to help answer the basic questions: "are consumers getting a fair deal when they purchase something". Your role is NOT to determine the fairness of what the consumer is getting, but rather to measure, understand and describe what they are actually getting. In order to make this more useful for the magazine, the editors want you to compare two different brands of this something. Since this will be a long-term project, the magazine has decided to let you choose what the first something is. The editors of the magazine have provided you with the following guidelines and suggestions:

PART 1:

1. In Excel, set up a table (don’t use the chart functionality). Label the Y (vertical) axis "number of observations", with a scale of about 1 to 20. Label the X (horizontal) axis with your unit of measure, eg. "number of twists" or "number of raisins". The scale along this axis should be based on your first observation, with that measurement being about the middle of the scale. Then copy your table, so you have two; one table for each brand.
2. .For the first brand you have chosen, take one measurement based on your statement in part (1). Record your result on your first table (fill one box with an ‘x’).
3. .Continue this process until all 40 measurements have been taken for the first brand.
4. Do steps 4 and 5 over again, using the second brand and the second table.
5. What did you notice about the way the patterns on your graph developed as you recorded each new observation?
6. What can you say at this point about the two brands? (Don’t do any other analysis other than looking at the graphs you have produced so far.
7. Please submit the frequency tables along with the answers to the questions.
   
   

Part 2: Initial Analysis

Now you will analyze the data in order to compare the two brands, and draw some conclusions about your subjects.

1. Use your technology tool (usually Excel) to produce a boxplot for each sample you collected. Include those plots in the report.
2. Do your plots identify any potential outliers? If so, which points are they, and why do you think they occurred?
3. Summarize your observations from your plots in about three sentences.
4. Use your technology tool to produce a numerical summary of the samples. Include this in your report.
5. Summarize your results in a short paragraph that is appropriate for the editor of this consumer-oriented magazine to use in a story. (Appropriate language means avoiding the use of technical terms like mean and standard deviation.
6. Please submit the boxplots as well as the number summary and your answers to the questions

Part 3

(1) For each of your two brands, calculate the 90% and 99% confidence intervals.

(2) Sketch all confidence intervals on a common scale. Clearly label or otherwise indicate each line.

Example:
|---------------------------------| Brand B, 90%
|------------------------------------| Brand A, 90%
32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45

(3) Summarize, in language appropriate for a consumer magazine, your observations about the differences, or lack thereof, between your two brands.

Part 4 (It will be helpful to complete the readings and some exercises for this module first.)

(1) Perform the appropriate test of significance in order to determine if there is a difference between the means of the two brands. State your conclusion with regard to both 1% and 5% significance levels.

(2) Perform the appropriate test of significance in order to determine if there is a difference between the variance of the two brands. State your conclusion with regard to both 1% and 5% significance levels.

Price: $20.1

Solution: The downloadable solution consists of 11 pages, 910 words and 8 charts.
Deliverable: Word Document