Homework 1

Book Exercises:
1.12, 1.20, 1.22, 1.24, 1.29, 1.35 (Section 1.1); 1.46, 1.49, 1.50, 1.62, 1.76 (Section 1.2)
See notes below.

Lab Exercise:
Neonatal Sepsis
Please staple the textbook problems separately from Lab 1.

Notes on the book exercises:

  1. You should use the computer to do some of your homework problems, especially drawing graphs and calculating summary statistics.
  2. Most of the data sets presented in your textbook are available online, so YOU DON'T NEED TO RE-TYPE THEM INTO MINITAB. The data sets are stored as Minitab portable worksheets in the folder P:\Data\Math\StatM&M4. If a data set is given as part of an exercise, but is not displayed and labeled specifically as a "Table", it will be named "Ex#_#.mtp", corresponding to the number of the problem in the text (#.#). However, if a data set is displayed and labeled specifically as "Table#.#", the file containing this data will be "Ta#_#.mtp". If a data set is introduced as an example in the course of the text, the file will be labeled "Eg#_#.mtp".
  3. Minitab does not have an option for making back-to-back stemplots; you'll want to do this by hand.
  4. For problem 1.35, draw the histogram by hand. (It is difficult to make Minitab draw a histogram with the data in this format, and you also learn more from this exercise when you do it by hand.)
  5. To make side-by-side boxplots for the quantitative data in different columnns, use GRAPH > BOXPLOT and put the names of the columns in the "Graph variables" window under "Y". To choose the shading patterns, go to EDIT ATTRIBUTES and change the "Fill types" and/or "Back color" columns. To make sure that the boxplots are side-by-side (and do not appear in different windows), go to FRAME > MULTIPLE GRAPHS, and choose "Overlay graphs on the same page".
  6. To make side-by-side boxplots for the data in one column, with separate boxplots for different values of a categorical variable, use GRAPH > BOXPLOT and put the name of the (quantitative) data colum in "Graph variables" window under "Y". Under "X", give the column that contains the values of the categorical variable. This will create one boxplot for the data of each category and place the boxplots in the same window.

More Minitab Hints:

  1. Saving your work: I recommend that you save your work to your personal allocated space on the H: drive, since this space can be accessed from any networked computer at Kenyon. You may want to consider making a folder for MATH106, and then sub-folders for particular assignments. (Each student has space alloted to him/her on the H: drive; you may be familiar with this as yourusername on 'machinename'(H).)
  2. Minitab worksheets vs. Minitab projects: In Minitab, each individual data set, i.e. each spreadsheet, is a Minitab worksheet (usually file extension 'mtw'). Worksheets that are meant to portable across operating systems (for instance, PC to MacOS) have file extension 'mtp'; this includes the worksheets in P:\Data\Math\StatM&M4. You can also form a project, consisting of one or more worksheets, accompanying graphics, and other session-related information. The Minitab project file (extension 'mpj') is a nice style for saving work related to a report or homework assignment.
  3. Saving a graph as a file: You can save any graphics you create in Minitab in a variety of formats, using File, Save graph as. The default format is the Minitab graphics file ('.mgf'); however, I've also had success with incorporating '.bmp', '.tif', and '.png' formats into WordPerfect and Word documents.
  4. Copying a graph directly into a document: You can use Edit, Copy graph to copy the the current graph. To insert it into a Word or WordPerfect document, just go the document, right-click, and choose paste.