6 Collecting data
6.1 Conducting an investigation
Worked example 6.1 Key words
A nurse is collecting data about babies. Write down the type of data categorical data
in each case. continuous data
a length b date of birth c mass data
discrete data
d age of mother e colour of eyes
prediction
Answer
a and c are continuous data; length and mass are both measured.
d is discrete data; age is a whole number.
b and d are categorical data; date of birth and colour of eyes are
not numerical.
Exercise 6.1
Focus
1 categorical discrete continuous
Choose the correct word from the box to describe the following recipe ingredients.
a the number of eggs b the mass of rice c the type of vegetables
2 Marcus is collecting data about a room. Give two examples of each of the following types
of data.
a categorical data b discrete data c continuous data
3 The manager of a gym wants to investigate how people use the gym.
Here are two questions from a questionnaire. The questionnaire is
given to members as they leave the gym.
Question 1: Did you enjoy your visit to the gym today? ………………
Question 2: Which equipment did you use? ………………
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6 Collecting data
a Write an improved version of Question 1.
b How could you improve Question 2?
Practice
4 This is a question from a questionnaire. The questionnaire is given
to people who use a website to find information.
How easily did you find the information you wanted?
Choose one number.
Not easy at all 1 2 3 4 5 Very easy
a What does it mean if you choose ‘4’?
This table shows the total scores at the end of one day.
Score 1 2 3 4 5
Frequency 12 25 17 14 5
b How many people answered the question?
c Draw a suitable chart to show the data.
d Write down the modal score.
e A prediction is that most people find the website easy to use.
Is the prediction correct? Give reasons for your answer.
5 A teacher gives 40 learners a spelling test. The test has a total 9 7 4 8 9
of 10 marks.
The teacher predicts that, on average, learners will get at 5 5 6 8 6
least 8 marks. Here are the marks. 7 6 5 4 8
a Put the marks in a frequency table. 8 8 9 4 9
b Find the modal mark.
8 5 10 5 5
c Find the median mark.
6 10 6 4 7
d The total of all the marks is 276. Work out the mean mark.
e Is the teacher’s prediction correct? Give a reason for 5 8 8 8 8
your answer. 8 9 5 10 6
6 A medical clinic records the pulse rate of 125 patients.
The lowest rate collected is 48 beats per minute (bpm) and the Tip
highest rate collected is 83 bpm.
Pulse rate is the
a You have been asked to show these results in a bar chart. number of times
Why is it a good idea to group the data first? the heart beats in
1 minute.
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6.1 Conducting an investigation
b Shown here is part of a grouped frequency table. Add more
columns to the table.
Pulse rate (bpm) 45–49 50–54 55–59
Frequency
c The table is used to draw a bar chart. How many bars will the bar
chart have?
d How would you find the modal group from your bar chart?
e A prediction is that very few people have a low pulse rate.
How will the bar chart show that this prediction is true?
f What calculation can you do to test whether the prediction is true?
Challenge
7 A shop is doing a survey of its customers. Here are some questions
from the survey. Critique the questions by giving a reason why each
question is not good. Suggest a way to improve each question.
a How much did you enjoy shopping here today?
b How often do you shop here?
c How old are you?
8 A college uses a survey to investigate student satisfaction with
a lecturer.
Students must say how much they agree with a number of statements.
Here is an example:
The lecturer gives clear explanations.
1 2 3 4 5
Strongly Disagree Neither agree Agree Strongly agree
disagree nor disagree
a Give some advantages of writing a question in this way.
b Write two more statements for the same type of question.
c Are there any disadvantages when using this format?
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6 Collecting data
9 Here is part of an advertisement for a brand of coffee.
Other
Sa C t. brand
85% f yd r 15%
Sa C o r d.
Supa
Coffee
85%
a Does the survey show that Supa Coffee is the best brand?
b The advertisement does not give any information about the survey.
What information should be included?
6.2 Taking a sample
Exercise 6.2 Key words
sample
Focus sample size
1 Kimsant is investigating the heights of 13-year-old boys. He finds
the heights of a sample of five boys.
a What average could Kimsant work out from these five boys?
Explain how he would calculate this average.
b Explain why five is not a good sample size.
c Would 1000 boys be a good sample size? Give a reason for
your answer.
2 A questionnaire is given to people who have stayed at a hotel.
Here is one question:
Was the hotel good value for money? Circle one number.
Very bad value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Excellent value
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6.2 Taking a sample
a Why is the question asked in this way?
Here is a summary of the results.
Score 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency 4 18 25 15 10 18 8 0 2 0
b What is the sample size?
c Draw a suitable chart to show the data.
d Find a suitable average value.
e Is there evidence that the hotel is good value for money?
Give reasons for your answer.
3 A website sells shoes. After customers receive their shoes, the company
asks them to fill in an online questionnaire.
a Give one advantage of sending a questionnaire in this way.
b Write down two predictions the questionnaire could test.
c Is this a good way to choose a sample?
Practice
4 Students at a large college are aged between 17 and 22 years.
Zara predicts:
Older students
are likely to study
more subjects.
She collects data from a sample of students to test this prediction.
a Show how Zara could set up a table to display the data she collects.
b There are 10 students in the sample who are 18 years old and who
study four subjects. Show this information in your table.
c Explain why a sample size of 20 is not large enough.
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6 Collecting data
5 Rosario is investigating adults who use a library. He predicts that older
adults use the library more often than younger adults.
a Write down two ways that Rosario can choose a sample to test his
prediction.
Rosario collects some data and presents it in this table.
Age (years)
21−35 36–50 More than 50
Number of 1–5 5 2 2
visits in a 6–10 3 2 3
3-month period More than 10 1 4 6
b What is the sample size?
c Is there evidence that Rosario’s prediction is correct?
d Do you think the sample is large enough?
6 A large company has over 2000 employees. There is a staff restaurant
for the employees. The manager wants to investigate what employees
think about the food provided so that the company can make
improvements. The manager wants to question a sample of employees.
a What is a suitable sample size?
b How can the manager choose the sample?
c How can the manager collect the data?
Challenge
7 A company employs 265 people. Here are the ages (in years) of a
sample of 30 employees.
29 53 27 30 32 69 50 32 54 43
25 46 33 62 37 54 37 38 44 31
44 41 36 57 63 37 29 53 33 40
a Show the data in a suitable chart.
b What can you say about the ages of the employees in the company?
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6.2 Taking a sample
8 There are 150 learners of your age at your school. You want to
investigate what they think about mathematics and the quality
of the teaching at your school. You decide to choose a sample of
30 learners and to give them a questionnaire.
a Why would it not be a good idea just to choose 30 of your friends?
b How would you choose your sample to make it representative
of the whole school?
c Write one question that you could ask.
d Explain how you would analyse the answers you get to the
question in part c.
9 A spinner has five sections numbered 1 to 5. This table shows the
results of 40 spins.
4 4 1 1 5 1 3 4 2 5
1 3 5 5 3 3 5 1 1 3
5 2 1 4 5 4 4 3 4 5
4 4 1 2 5 2 3 3 5 2
a Use the columns as 10 samples of size 4. Find the mean of
each sample. For example, the first sample is 4, 1, 5, 4 and the
mean is (4 + 1 + 5 + 4) ÷ 4 = 3.5.
b Use the rows as four samples of size 10. Find the mean of
each sample. For example, the mean of the first sample is
(4 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 5 + 1 + 3 + 4 + 2 + 5) ÷ 10.
c Sofia wants to investigate the mean score of the spinner for a
large number of spins. She says:
A large
sample is better than
a small sample.
Use your answers to parts a and b to decide if Sofia’s
statement is true.
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