Download Dana Soweidan 5th period Math 1040 Statistical Study Project # 1

Dana Soweidan
5th period
Math 1040 Statistical Study
Project # 1
When I went to Wal-Mart, I contemplated the different varieties of cereal that were
placed on eye level and compared them to other shelves of cereal. The data that I gathered was
quite surprising. When I first read the hypothesis I thought that it was absurd. Purposely putting
high sugar content cereal at eye level, alluring people to purchase unhealthy food, wasn’t even
something that would occur to me. However, the statistics I gathered pointed otherwise.
I randomly selected a type of cereal on the first shelf. It was 9 grams of sugar. The 2nd
cold cereal contained 2 grams, the next 7 grams and so on. In the end the first self had an
average sugar content of 9.125 grams. When I constructed a box plot, the shape was skewed left,
showing us that there was low sugar content in that particular shelf. It would be most appropriate
to use the mean as a measure of center for this shelf. The next shelf I gathered data from was the
one that was on eye level. It struck me when I looked at the sugar content of the first box and it
contained 12 grams. What surprised me even more was the 4th box of cereal I checked had 18
grams! When I made a box plot for this shelf, it was skewed right, allowing me to make a
connection that the 2nd shelf had a high sugar content. I would most likely use the median for
this shelf as a measure of center because it did contain an outlier. The average of this shelf was
11.25, two more than the first shelf! Finally, when I check third shelf, it started off normal. The
first few boxes had around 5 to 7 grams of sugar. I did get some numbers that were either on the
high end or low end, such as 1 gram and 14 grams. When I created a box plot for this shelf, it
had a normal distribution. The average was 6.5 grams. Because it was normally distributed, I
used the mean as a measure of center. The standard deviation for the first two shelves were close
to each other, however the last shelf had a higher deviation than the rest.
Dana Soweidan
5th period
When it came to finding the spread of the data, I had to look at the graphs for quite a
while. For the first shelf, I used the quartiles to determine the spread. It was located in the lower
25% range. For the second shelf, I was very confused because it shared a minimum value along
with the first quartile. If I were to describe the spread, I would use the quartiles since I used the
median as a measure of center. The spread was located in the top 25%. Lastly, for the third
shelf, I used standard deviation due to the fact that I used the mean as a measure of center. The
standard deviation was 4.66 for the last shelf.
The shapes of the distributions in each shelf were very different. Some ranged very high
while others had a low range. The first shelf didn’t contain very high sugar content, which is
funny because the children cannot see up on the first shelf! For the second shelf, which was at
eye level, it contained very high sugar contents, which proved that the hypothesis mentioned
earlier was true. The last shelf was a normal distribution; it did not reach the very lows of the
sugar content but also didn’t reach the extreme highs either.
When I gathered the information and put it together, realizing that the hypothesis is true, I
really thought about why that would be. They place the low sugar contents on the first shelf,
were most children (who are the main consumers of cereal) cannot see it. Then placing the high
sugar cereals on the shelf were most people can see it, that way people will find the high sugar
cereal and purchase it quickly. By purchasing the high sugar cereal, they will most likely love
the taste of it and come back for more, whereas if they were to get the cereal on the first and last
shelves, it may not be as great of a taste to come back for seconds.
By doing this observational study, I learned that we can make a box plot out of almost
anything and make it meaningful. I never thought I would compare sugar levels of cereal and
Dana Soweidan
5th period
bring forth a meaningful discovery. Also, by doing this project, I proved the hypothesis correct!
Now I know that stores may trick you into buying unhealthy foods on purpose, something to
look out for in the future.