Q1 The Human Resources Manager of a small company is investigating use of and satisfaction with the staff canteen. He decides to run a small survey of staff members.

(a) Suggest two categorical questions that could be asked in the survey, one nominal and one ordinal.

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(b) Suggest two numerical questions that could be asked in the survey, one discrete and one continuous.

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(c) The Manager is considering distributing the survey by leaving copies on the tables in the canteen, and placing a box at the exit for the completed surveys to be posted.

Discuss briefly any disadvantages of this method, and suggest an alternative. image3

Q2 The data file Carseats.xls contains information on a company’s sales of child carseats at a number of different locations. The “Info” tab in the worksheet gives a list of the variables and their meanings.

(a) Construct a % frequency distribution for the sales and use this to complete the table below: [3]

Frequency Table for Sales of Car Seats
Sales (in 1000s)
Midpoint
Frequency
% Frequency
0 < x ? 2 2< x ? 4 4< x ? 6 6< x ? 8 8< x ? 10 10< x ? 12 12< x ? 14 14< x ? 16 16< x ? 18 (b) In Excel, construct a histogram illustrating the frequency distribution, and insert this into your assignment. Comment on what it shows. [6] image4 (c) Calculate summary statistics for the data and use them to complete the table below, rounding your answers to 2 decimal places: Statistic Sales (1000s) Mean Median 1st quartile 3rd quartile Interquartile range Range Standard deviation [3] (d) Using the appropriate variables in Carseat.xls, draw side-by-side boxplots to examine the effect of shelf location on sales. Comment on what they show. image5 Q3 Refer back to the file Carseat.xls used in Question 2. (a) Construct a pivot table with Urban as the row variable and Shelf Location as the column variable .... [2] (b) Use your pivot table to construct a contingency table showing percentages in each shelf location category by urbanity. This means that each row of your table should add up to 100%. [3] (c) Construct a suitable chart to illustrate the above table, and comment on what it suggests. [4] Q4 Extension Question – this is not compulsory, but is an opportunity to earn some bonus marks if you want to attempt this more challenging question. You can get up to 5 extra marks by doing so. Refer back to the data in the file Carseats.xls . Use Excel’s PivotTable facility to create a table showing how the mean and standard deviation of sales vary according to shelf location. You will have to explore the options in the PivotTable Field List in order to change the value field setting from “Sum” (the default) to more appropriate settings. Comment on what your table shows, in relation to your answer to Q2(d).