Thumb Tack Data

Project #401 on iSENSEProject.org

---

 

QUESTION

What is the likelihood a thumbtack lands point up?

 

OBJECTIVE

In this activity you will explore smapling distributions for proportions, observing the shape, mean and standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the proportion. 

OVERVIEW

In this activity students construct a distribution of the proportion of point up on a thump take flipped 5 times and then 25 times. 

PROCEDURE

 1. Predict how likely the thumb tack is to land point up.

 2. Flip a thumb tack 5 times

 3. Record the number of times the thump tack landed point up.

 4. Calculate the proportion of times the thumb tack landed point up (# of times point up/ 5)

 5. Upload the data to iSENSE. Recording the count and the proporion

 6. Make a histogram of the proprtion of heads up

 7. Now think about your prediction of point up.Would you change your prediction?

 8. Repeat questions 2-6 for a sample of 25 flips. 

 9. Describe the distribution (Shape, Outliers, Center, Spread)

---

Name	Units	Type of Data
Number of Point up out of 5	None	Number
Proportion of point up out of 5	None	Number
Number of point up out of 25	None	Number
Proportion of point up out of 25	None	Number

---

Number of Point up out of 5	Proportion of point up out of 5	Number of point up out of 25	Proportion of point up out of 25