Statistics home work

Question

Gocerment agencies carefully monitor water quality and it's effect on wetlands. Of particular concern is the concentration of nitrogen in water draining from fertilizer lands. Twenty-eight samples of water were taken at random from a lake. The nitrogen concentration was determined for each sample. 

 

a)Identify the variable?

 

b) is the variable quantitative or qualitative or both?

 

c) what is the imied population? 

    The entire lake or all lakes or 28samples that water examed?

 

 

 

Answer 1

a) what is the variable? Ask yourself, what is being measured? what quantity are they curious about? not the volume of the sample, not the color..... it's the concentration of nitrogen. That's what they want to know the effect of........ the nitrogen in the lake causes unwanted effects.

 

b) is the variable quantitative? (can it be measured with a number?) or qualitative (can you describe it by color? or by yes/no?). Concentrations are measured with units such as parts per million or mg/Litre. Those are numerical values. The variable is quantitative.

 

c) the implied population (did you leave out a few letters?)..... the implied population is the lake. The samples were taken either over time or from different locations in the lake, in an effort to characterize the entire lake.