Representative Sample Scenarios Answer Key
1. To determine the percentage of teenage girls with long hair, Teen magazine
published a mail-in questionnaire. Of the 500 respondents, 85% had hair shoulder
length or longer (USA Today, July 1, 1985).
No (only teenagers who read Teen and choose to write would represent al
teens)
2. A college psychology professor needs subjects for a research project to determine
which colors average American adults find restful. From the list of all 743
students taking introductory psychology at her school, she selects 25 students
using a random number table.
No (only includes students which would not include many “average
American adults”; students are often
young so many ages would not be represented)
3.
To evaluate the reliability of cars owned by its subscribers, Consumer Reports magazine publishes a yearly list of automobiles and their frequency-of-repair
records. The magazine collects the information by mailing a questionnaire to
subscribers and tabulating the results from those who return it.
No (men would probably be better represented than women; only people
who read Consumer Reports and choose to respond would be represented)
4. Oranges from an orchard need to be samples to see if they are sweet enough for
juice. The orchard has 25,000 orange trees. Each tree has at least 500 oranges.
Claire decides to randomly choose 800 trees and test one orange from each tree.
yes
5. For a survey of student opinions about school athletic programs, a member of the
school board obtains a sample of students by listing all students in the school and
using a random number table to select 30 of them. Six of the students say that
they don’t have time to participate, and they are eliminated from the sample.
No (1/6 of the chosen sample was eliminated which is not representative to
the entire school)
6. There are fifteen boys and fifteen girls in a math class. Each student’s
drawn and all names correspond to
the boys in the class.
No (only boys are represented)
Misleading or Not – Communicating Data Effectively 27