Analyzing the data . . .

People were doing statistics long before computers, in fact, probably the best example of a statistcal graph was done in the 1800s by Charles Joseph Minard. But computers have made the collection and analysis of numerical data a whole lot easier, but they have not made us any smarter.


Charles Joseph Minard's Anti-war poster [Larger English version].

So what I'd like for you to do is to assign each person born in 1978 a unique number. We'll eventually place all these numbers in a big lottery type machine, mix well, and then sample twenty-three people at random. The easiest way to do this is as follows.

• 7701 people were born on 1/1/78, so just assign them a range from 1 . . 7701;
  
• 7527 people were born on 1/2/78, so just assign them a range from 7701 + 1 = 7702 . . 7701+ 7527 = 15228;
  
• 8825 people were born on 1/3/78, so just assign them a range from 15229 . . 24053;
  
• 8859 people were born on 1/4/78, so just assign them a range from 24054 . . 32912;
  
• 9043 people were born on 1/5/78, so just assign them a range from 32913 . . 41955;
  
• 9208 people were born on 1/6/78, so just assign them a range from 41956 . . 51163;
  
• etc., until you're reached December 31, 1978
  

Now, if I select a person who was assigned the number 589, he/she will be in the range of people with birth dates of January 1. You should check that the person who's number is 3,043,614 will have a birth date of November 11. Go ahead and prepare the file (a speadsheet might be helpful, or at least a calculator) and then download Worksheet #2 from the sidebar and answer the questions. Submit them to your instructor to see if you've done it right!