204 Final Exam: Geographic Situations
Two sample difference of proportions
A 2012-2013 survey of winter guests at Tamarac Lodge estimates that 58 percent of the respondents did not ski during their visit. A consultant hypothesizes that an even larger percentage will not ski this upcoming winter. When the data becomes available, how will she test this hypothesis?
Kruskal Wallis analysis of variance
A Japanese city has five major shopping centers. A random sample of 25 shoppers at each center is asked how much money they spent shopping in the center that day. What statistical test could be used to see if the typical shopper at the different centers spends differing amounts of money? Assume the pattern of expenditures at each center is very positively skewed.
Poisson probability
A Manitoba farmer is concerned about the threat of hailstorms and wants to know whether he should purchase insurance. He has a 35-year record of hailstorm frequency and knows that anywhere from 0 to 4 storms have hit his farm in the past, with a mean frequency of 1.4 hailstorms per year. How can he calculate the likelihood of a hailstorm hitting his farm next year?
Two sample difference of means
A cartographer is studying the relative effectiveness of different map variations. The same map is produced in two distinct ways: 5-color and 5 shades of gray. The same series of questions about the map are asked of 15 people using each of the two map variations, and the score for each participant is recorded. How can the cartographer test the hypothesis that higher average scores are received when the 5-color version of the map is used?
Two sample difference test
A cartography student has proposed a research paper project. She wants to contrast the map interpretation skills of male versus female students. Suppose map interpretation test scores from 18 males and 20 females are placed in an overall rank order, from highest score to lowest score. What technique should she use to learn if male and female map interpretation skills differ?
Quadrat analysis
An oceanographer wants to analyze the pattern of manganese nodules in a portion of the North Atlantic to determine if the pattern is more clustered than random. What technique should she use?
Equal intervals based on range
A choropleth map of states in Mexico uses the following legend categories: 11.37 to 16.26; 16.27 to 21.36; 21.37 to 26.36; 26.37 to 30.14. What method of classification is being used?
Analysis of Variance
A climatologist has measured sulfur dioxide levels in the lower atmosphere repeatedly at seven different weather stations along a line of latitude across central Canada for an entire year. How can he test for differences in sulfur dioxide levels between stations?
Pearson's correlation coefficient
A climatologist is conducting a study of "lake effect snow" along the shores of Lake Ontario. She has collected annual snowfall data from numerous monitoring sites at varying distances from the Lake. What statistical technique should be used to measure the strength of relationship between annual snowfall and distance from the Lake?
Kurtosis
A climatologist is looking at modified climographs from ten weather stations and is focusing on the plots of mean monthly precipitation for each of the stations. Some graphs have a very high spike (showing that almost all the annual precipitation falls in just a couple of months of the year), whereas other graphs indicate precipitation falls rather evenly throughout the year. What descriptive statistic should be used to measure and quantify these visual observations?
Binomial probability
A corn farmer in central Nebraska has discovered that at least three inches of precipitation are needed during a critical three-week period in the growing season to avoid irrigation. If he has to irrigate, he will lose money that year. Historic data indicate that in 15 of the last 18 years precipitation has exceeded three inches during this time. How can the farmer determine if it is profitable to plant corn?
Quadrat analysis
A geographer believes that medical service facilities in a major urban area are clustered near high accessibility locations (such as primary commercial routes and highway interchanges). If each sampled medical service facility is plotted as a point on an area map, what technique could be applied to analyze this pattern?
Pearson's correlation coefficient
A geographer has two isoline maps of Pakistan: one showing mean annual precipitation and the other showing population density. Suppose the same random sample of points is selected from each map. Assume that both variables are from normally-distributed populations. What technique will determine the degree to which the two map patterns are associated?
Matched pairs
A geographer is examining citizens' attitudes toward growth in a rapidly-expanding area. The research design is set up to survey a random sample of 230 people at two different times. First, attitudes toward growth will be measured before construction of a major new regional shopping mall. Later, the same people will be resurveyed after the mall has been open a year. How can the geographer test whether respondents' attitudes toward growth have changed?
Standard distance
A geographer is looking at two maps of Nashville, Tennessee. One map has a point indicating the location of every pawnshop, while the other map has a point representing every grocery store. What descriptive spatial measure should the geographer use to compare their levels of spatial dispersion?
Natural breaks
A geographer plans to make a choropleth map of Texas counties, showing median family income. However, he wants to use a method of classification that will highlight the unusual counties (outliers), thereby allowing map viewers to quickly spot "extreme" counties. What method of classification should he use?
Analysis of variance
A geographer wants to learn if mean soybean yields per acre on three soil types are significantly different. From a sample of farms on each soil type, he collects the soybean yield values. It is assumed that the populations from which the samples are taken is normally-distributed. What statistical text should he use?
Pearson's correlation coefficient
A geographer wants to see if monthly rents for student housing vary according to the distance of the rental property from campus. She suspects the closer an apartment unit to campus, the higher the rent. How can she test whether this distance decay effect is present?
Join count analysis
A geography student has a table listing all of the states, followed by a zero if the state has not passed legislation making English the official language, or followed by a one if it has. If a map is made using this information, what technique can she use to determine if the spatial pattern making English the official language is random?
Simple linear regression
A geography student has been studying the relationship of distance from Lake Ontario and the amount of "lake effect snow." Some friends of hers live in this study area and have a cabin ten miles from the Lake. What technique should she apply to estimate how much snowfall they received last winter?
Two sample difference test
A geomorph is studying surface runoff levels in two different environments: (1) a natural setting with no modification by human activity; and (2) an urban setting, highly modified through development. To test for significant differences in runoff, spatial random samples are taken from both settings. Suppose the runoff data are placed into a single overall rank order from high to low within the two sampled areas. What test should be used?
Standard deviation
In a list of 50 test scores, the mean score is 74.1 out of 100. What statistic should be calculated to determine how much the typical score varies from this mean?
Matched Pairs
A glaciologist studying temperature variation in Greenland has proposed that temperatures are significantly warmer today than 300 years ago. Using 100 test sites around the sub-continent, he has measured the average temperature over the last year and estimated the average temperature at those sites 300 years ago from the chemical composition of ice bores. How should he test for warming?
Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
A hurricane has recently moved up the Atlantic coast of the US, causing damage in ma or coastal cities. Suppose the amount of damage (in millions of dollars) is as follows with the cities listed in location from south to north (i.e., the southernmost city is listed first and the northernmost city is listed last): 786, 451, 507, 410, 202, 51, 171, 35, 27, 58). How can these data be evaluated to learn if location northward or southward is significantly related to the amount of damage?
Two sample difference of proportions
A newspaper reporter for a small regional paper wants to determine if the local Labour Party candidate for Parliament has a similar level of support among voters in two adjacent towns. The proportion of a random sample of voters in each town favoring the candidate is recorded. How can the reported discover if the support level for the candidate differs between the two towns?
Stratified sampling
A physical geographer is preparing to take soil samples from an area that is 20 percent marshland. She suspects that environmental degradation is most severe in the marshland portion of the study area, so she wants to ensure that area is proportionally oversampled. What type of spatial point sampling should she apply?
One sample difference of means
A planner in Tampa, Florida has assisted in the design of a newly-planned community project, which has on-site health care facilities. He hypothesizes that residents in the planned community are older that the metropolitan-wide mean. If the age statistics for all Tampa residents is known, what statistical technique should be applied to learn if planned community residents are older?
Join count analysis
A political geographer is interested in knowing if the strength of support for a Mississippi Republican candidate for the Senate in the last election was spatially autocorrelated. The candidate received 65 percent of the vote statewide. Each Mississippi county is identified as either above or below the statewide percentage and this pattern is plotted on a map. What statistical technique should be used?
Two sample difference of proportions
A random sample exit poll of Jefferson County voters resulted in the following opinions regarding a commercial-retail blue law that would prohibit businesses from being open on Sunday. In Drumlintown, 48 percent were in favor of such a law, while in the rest of the County, 54 percent were in favor. How would you test the hypothesis that support for the blue law is higher outside Drumlintown than in the city?
Matched pairs
A random sample of residents whose homes are on the floodplain of the Mississippi River is surveyed regarding their attitudes toward various flood management practices. After a flood has occurred, the same set of homeowners is resurveyed about these issues. What test should be used to determine if attitudes toward flood management policies have changed?
Coefficient of variation
A regional planner is studying income inequalities across a set of counties in northern Appalachia. Median household income by county is known for both 2000 and 2010. How can the planner descriptively measure the relative dispersion of income among counties in 2000, and compare that measure with the 2010 result?
Analysis of variance
A regional planner obtains random samples of home costs from four Michigan counties. Suppose the home costs appear normal in each county and that prices seem to vary about the same amount from county to county. What test should the planner use to learn if the differences in home cost by county are significant?
Probability map
A researcher wants to depict graphically the mean average snowfall amounts that are 10 percent likely to be exceeded across western and central Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba). The graphic is based on data from 85 weather stations in this region. What will the researcher be depicting graphically?
Skew
A researcher working with a 50-year climatological record of Atlanta, Georgia, knows the number of days each year with temperatures above 90ºF. When she constructs a histogram showing the distribution of these 50 values, it doesn't look at all symmetric. A few years had many more very hot days than the others. What descriptive statistic can she apply to measure this lack of symmetry?
Matched pairs
A sample of residents is surveyed to determine the number of miles traveled per week not related to work. A year later, following a large increase in gasoline prices, the same individuals are sampled again to record possible changes in discretionary travel behavior. How could you test whether the change in gasoline price is related to decrease automobile use?
Poisson probability
A small village in northern Ontario has a 112-year record showing the number of days in May with measurable precipitation (greater than 0.10 centimeters). Some years are totally dry, with no days of measurable precipitation, but during one very wet year, rainfall occurred 16 days of the month. The mean number of days with measurable rainfall is 3.2. What method should be used to calculate the likelihood of 5 or more days of rainfall for this upcoming May?
Nearest neighbor analysis
A social services planner in Chicago, Illinois, is concerned about people's access to a set of service centers scattered around the metropolitan area and does not want anyone living too far from any of the centers. How could she test whether the pattern of these centers is more dispersed than random?
Variogram
A soil scientist is interested in observing the spatial structure of pH values at different locations and their similarities with nearby locations. What kind of graph might he make to determine the distance at which the pH values are no longer similar?
Quadrat analysis
A tornado-spotter wants to analyze the initial "touch-down" point pattern for tornadoes that initially touched down in Arkansas. The overall pattern appears somewhat clustered, but there is some disagreement. What inferential technique can be used to determine whether the pattern in more clustered than random?
Moran's I
A university student in Atlanta, Georgia wants to write a course research paper on the distribution of poverty in the metro area. She collects poverty rate data by census tract, and wants to determine if tracts with high poverty levels are located near other tracts of high poverty. What kind of test will she perform for her research paper?
Stratified sampling
A university student in Toronto, Ontario is conducting research about attitudes toward a newly-proposed rent control initiative. He knows that about 58 percent of Toronto residents live in rental units, and he wants to ensure that about 58 percent of the respondents to his survey live in rental units. What type of sampling design should he utilize?
Random Sample
A work-study student assigned to the administrative office at a university is trying to find out what activities a sample of students want in the soon-to-be-constructed student union. The only stipulation is that any student has an equal chance of being included in the sample. What type of sample should the work-study student take?
One sample difference of proportions
According to a recent nationwide study, only 54 percent of all Americans can locate Mexico on a world map (this is a true fact!). From a sample of 60 students in a college geography course, suppose 63 percent are able to locate Mexico. What test should be used to learn if the sample of students is typical?
Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
An earthquake resulted in the following number of deaths and injuries in 11 villages located at increasing distances from the epicenter: 520, 410, 320, 310, 50, 170, 210, 140, 100, 50, and 20. That is, 520 deaths and injuries occurred in the village closest to the epicenter, 410 occurred in the next closest village, and so on. If no further information is available, how can you measure the strength of relationship between proximity to the epicenter and number of casualties and injuries?
Join count analysis
An economic development planner is interested in evaluating changing patterns of poverty in Appalachia. She has a series of county-level choropleth maps showing each county as either above regional median family income (shaded) or below regional median family income (un-shaded). How can she test whether poverty is becoming more spatially concentrated over time?
Systematic sampling
An economic geographer is consulting for Flor-Mart (the giant store chain), helping them better determine the demographic profile of their customers. She has an alphabetical master list of all credit card holders and wants every 20th cardholder to complete a detail questionnaire. The five-percent sample results, with careful follow-up of non-respondents, will be very useful to FM management. What type of sampling is she suggesting?
One-sample difference of means
An economic geographer is studying the spatial patterns of income in Melbourne, Australia, and it is known that the mean family income is $38,346. A sample of 15 Melbourne households reveals an average of $40,487. How should the geographer test to see if the sample of 15 families is representative of the entire population of Melbourne?
Pearson's correlation coefficient
An economic geographer wants to examine the strength of relationship between population size and the number of retail establishments for a set of Australian cities. What technique should be applied?
Simple linear regression
An environmental planner has been collecting sulfur dioxide level readings from a sample of monitoring sites at different distances from a coal-burning utility power plant in the Ohio River Valley. What statistical technique can she use to predict the sulfur dioxide level at an unmonitored site 12 miles downwind from the power plant?
Cluster sampling
An urban geographer is part of a team planning to collect data from city residents. One action that has been suggested is to survey every home in selected city blocks (to save time and money). What sampling strategy would this be?
Moran's I
An urban geographer wants to analyze a map pattern depicting the number of existing home sales by census block group in Detroit, Michigan. He suspects some blockbusting is occurring and wants to determine the extent of home sales clustering ("hot spots") in certain portions of the metro area. How should he proceed?
Cluster Sample
As part of a recreation planning survey at a park, questions are asked of all persons visiting the park on a particular day. What type of sample is built into this sample design?
Pearson's correlation coefficient
Chinese agricultural officials are conducting a study of crop damage resulting from insect infestations in the lower Liao River Valley. It is hypothesized that one factor associated with the extent of insect damage is the amount of fertilizer used by different farmers. What test would be used to learn the strength of relationship between fertilizer use levels and the amount of insect damage?
One sample difference of means
City planners want to determine the attitudes of residents concerning possible construction of a new public swimming pool. They want their proposed 5-percent sample to be representative of the entire community, and they decide to use number of children per household as an indicator variable. If the mean number of children per household is known community-wide, how should planners test to see if the 5-percent sample mean is representative of the community-wide mean?
Nearest neighbor analysis
Dilbert Doakes is a consultant for the Los Angeles City fire department, and he has been asked to look at the spacing of fire stations throughout the City. Of particular concern are structures that may be too far from the nearest fire station to be protected adequately. What statistical technique should he use to help address this concern?
Two sample difference test
Elmwood, Oklahoma, has two restaurants. Suppose a random sample of patrons at each restaurant is asked the distance they have traveled to eat (the distribution of distances is severely non-normal). What test is appropriate to discover if patrons of the two restaurants travel different distances?
Simple linear regression
Environmentalists are investigating the spatial extent of thermal plume (higher water temperature) around a water discharge pipe at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant near Chesapeake Bay. Suppose personnel want to estimate surface water temperatures at various distances from the discharge point. What statistical procedure would be most appropriate?
Analysis of variance
Fred Foehn lives 500 meters from an interstate highway. From his front yard, Fred has been measuring noise levels at noon on a systematic sample of days over the last year. At the same time, he also records the primary wind direction (north, south, east, or west). Fred hypothesizes that noise level is related to wind direction. How can he test this hypothesis?
Quadrat analysis
From a random sample of trees in a national forest, a biogeographer wants to identify the pattern of diseased trees to see if they are randomly distributed of clustered. This will provide guidance concerning the most appropriate type of treatment (widespread aerial spraying or concentrated treatment of specific areas from ground-level). What test should be used?
one sample difference of means
From a recent nationwide study it is known that the typical American watches 25 hours of television per week (with a population standard deviation of 5.6 hours). Suppose 50 residents of New Orleans, Louisiana, are randomly selected and their viewing hours monitored. What technique can be used to determine whether the viewing habits of New Orleans residents differ from the national mean?
Two sample difference of proportions
From a representative sample of Canadian voters, how would a political geographer determine if the percentage of voters favoring placement of a "strict quota" on annual immigration volume differs significantly by gender?
Matched pairs
Geographic consultant Pierre Portage is studying visitor activity patterns in the Quebec park system. Managers want to know if park attendance figures differ from June and July, using the same set of parks in each case. What technique should Pierre advise them to apply?
Moran's I
Health officials are concerned about the recent diffusion of influenza in Moscow, Russia. If the number of cases is known for each local administrative unit for several consecutive weeks, the morbidity rate for influenza could be displayed on a series of choropleth maps (one map for each week), and the degree of clustering, randomness, or dispersion could be analyzed for each map pattern. What technique would be used?
Two sample difference of means
Hydrologists want to analyze the volume of material carried by two rivers (expressed in grams of solid material per liter of water). One river drains a predominantly agricultural area, while the other drains a predominantly forested area. To test for differences in volume of material carried, 12 random water samples are taken from both rivers, one sample a week through the summer months. What test should be used?
Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
In 2010, the Ontario Tourism Bureau compiled a "top-ten" list from a Province-wide sample survey, asking residents to rank cities in the Province by "livability." The Bureau wants to again ask a sample of Ontario residents to provide a current list. What statistical test should be used to measure the degree to which the two top-ten lists are related?
Simple linear regression
In another study concerned about crop damage caused by insect infestations in the Liao River Valley of China, insecticide use levels seem to be critical. Officials want to predict the amount of crop damage expected on a farm not included in the original study, solely based on the level of insecticide use. What technique should be used?
One sample difference of means
In previous years, the overall mean travel time for a boat trip down the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park was 144 hours. Because of River congestion and overuse, Park personnel hypothesize the trip will take significantly more time this year. After the data becomes available, how can you determine if boat trips now take longer?
Weighted mean center
Jill Doakes, currently with the U.S. Bureau of the Census, wants to estimate the 2030 location of the geographic center of population. Given county-level population estimates for 2030, what descriptive statistic should she use?
Probability map
Joe Doakes is working on a new "Atlas of Australia" and has been asked to construct an isoline map showing the likelihood that more than 20 inches of precipitation will occur at various weather stations the country. What should Joe create to complete this task?
Geometric probability
Let us suppose that there have been 12 confirmed tornado touch-downs in Ellis County, Kansas since 1900. What statistical technique would you recommend to predict the date of the next tornado touch-down in the County?
Standard score
London, England has a long, normally-distributed record of annual precipitation. Someone wants to know the probability that more than 800 millimeters of precipitation will fall next year. As a step in this process, what statistic needs to be calculated?
Confidence interval
Officials in Kamloops, British Columbia, know from a recent survey that 3.2 percent of their residents are "senior elderly," that is, age 80 and older. What will they be calculating if they try to estimate the likelihood that the true population proportion of senior elderly is between 3.0 and 3.4 percent
Binomial probability
Personnel at an Ontario Provincial Park want to locate a new campground on a riverfront site that will not be flooded too frequently. Budget managers advise a location that will be flooded no more frequently than once a decade. On one possible site, it has flooded 8 times in the last century. What procedure should be used to determine the probability that this site will not be flooded too frequently in the next 30 years?
Join count analysis
Political geographer Gerry Mander has a metropolitan area map showing the 78 election districts. For each district, Gerry knows whether the majority of registered voters is Republican or Democrat. What technique should he use to learn if political party affiliation is more clustered than random?
Multiple regression
Researchers continue to explore the various factors that might be related to the homicide rate in a major city. Data are available by census tract for many variables, including age, income, education, and unemployment rate. What test could be used to estimate the homicide area in a census tract not included in the original study?
Poisson probability
Steve "Smokey" Jones is a ranger in Plywood National Forest, and he has access to wildfire records over a 65-year period. Some years are fire-free, but in one very dry year 16 fires burned fifty acres or more. He has discovered the mean annual number of such extensive fires is 1.8. How can Smokey calculate the odds of three or more wildfires in Plywood next year?
Matched pairs
Suppose a demographer for the Ontario provincial government is looking at both the number of migrants moving into economic development areas and the number of migrants leaving the same area. How can she test whether the number of in- and out-migrants is statistically different?
Two sample difference of proportions
Suppose an urban planner in San Francisco, California, wants to determine if residents in rental units differ from residents in owner-occupied units with regard to the percentage favoring rent control legislation. If random samples of residents are taken from both types of residences, what statistical test should be used?
Spearman's rank correlation coefficient
Suppose there are two choropleth maps of Texas counties - one showing median family income in one of five ordinal categories, and another showing the percentage of labor force in profession occupation classified into four ordinal categories. What technique should be used to learn if the two choropleth map patterns differ?
Pearson's correlation coefficient
Suppose you are studying historical changes in housing characteristics in your hometown. You want to see if house size (square feet of living area) and the age of the home are associated. What method will you use to see if a relationship exists?
Scatterplot
Suppose you have collected data on infant mortality rate and number of hospitals per 100,000 people from 50 less-developed countries. You want to look at a graphic relationship between these two set of numbers. What graphic will you construct?
Quantile breaks
Suppose you have data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) listing HIV rates for all counties in the United States. You want to construct a choropleth map based on these data, and your goal is have about the same number of counties allocated to each of the five categories you plan to have on the map. What classification method are you going to use?
Geometric probability
Suppose you have the complete historical record of major earthquakes (say 6.0 or higher on the Richter scale) for that portion of the San Andreas Fault on the upper San Francisco Peninsula. Let's suppose the confirmed record indicates the date of each of 22 such incidents over the last 3,000 years. What technique could you use to predict the date of the next major earthquake?
Two sample difference of proportions
Texas is known for taking capital punishment seriously. However, a geographer is curious about whether attitudes toward capital punishment vary from one part of the state to another. As one segment of his study, random survey samples of residents are taken from El Paso (west Texas) and Beaumont (east Texas). In each city, he has estimated the percentage of respondents favoring the death penalty. What technique should be used to see if these attitudes differ statistically?
Kruskal Wallis analysis of variance
The SAT scores of 50 Middlebury students, 41 Salisbury students, and 83 Boysenbury students are randomly selected for analysis, and an overall ranking of scores is created. What statistical test should be used to learn if SAT scores between these three schools are different?
Multiple regression
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is attempting to reduce crime rates in various public housing projects. Data are collected from a sample of projects for a number of variables thought to be associated with crime, including: resident age, income, employment status, and participation in support programs. What test can be used to determine the relative influence of these various factors on crime?
Probability map
The U.S. Geological Survey wants to map the likelihood that a magnitude 5.0 or greater earthquake (Richter scale) will occur at various locations across southern California sometime in the next decade. What technique should be applied?
Two sample difference of proportions
The World Health Organization (WHO) has collected data on tuberculosis infection rates from a sample of neighborhoods in Lagos, Nigeria. If these neighborhoods are classified as either "more polluted" or "less polluted" based on levels of industrial activity, how can WHO researchers test whether tuberculosis infection rates differ by pollution level of the neighborhood?
Poisson probability
The agricultural extension agent in an Oregon county is concerned about the adverse effects of hailstorms on farms in her area. Hailstorm activity has been recorded over the last 55 years. Some years, no hailstorms occur anywhere in the county. However, in one extreme year, nine separate hailstorms occurred. How can she calculate the probability of the county experiencing exactly two hailstorms next year?
Multiple regression
The chair of a local environmental action group hypothesizes that a relationship exists between the volume of recycled material left along the curb for pickup and various homeowner characteristics, including: age, income, education, and a measure of homeowner community involvement. What method should be used to predict the likelihood of a particular homeowner participating in the recycling program?
Kruskal Wallis analysis of variance
The community of Sliding Stone, Pennsylvania, has five clearly-identifiable neighborhoods. A student at the local university thinks lot sizes differ by neighborhood, so he selects a random sample of ten lots from each neighborhood. It is assumed that lot sizes vary within each neighborhood by differing amounts. What statistical method should he use to verify his hypothesis?
Analysis of variance
The cost of a "market basket" of groceries is obtained from random samples of grocery stores in Boston, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and San Diego. The total cost of the same list of food items (same national brands and sizes) is recorded for each store in every city surveyed. What test should be applied to learn if the market basket costs between cities are different?
Binomial probability
The historical record at a site along the lower Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh indicates that major flooding occurs at least once during the rainy season four years out of ten (that is, 40 percent of the time). How would you estimate the probability that major flooding will occur at least once in six of the next ten years?
Simple linear regression
The housing department at Everbrown University has just completed a survey of 86 students, asking the distance of their off-campus housing unit from campus and the monthly rental cost of their unit. Given this information, what technique should housing personnel use to predict the monthly rent for a student living 1.5 miles from campus?
Two sample difference of means
Transportation planners in Minneapolis, Minnesota, are concerned about the effect of weather on the ridership levels of public transit. The hypothesis is that days with "bad" weather conditions (rain, snow) tend to attract more riders than "good" days (dry, sunny). Given daily ridership data and knowing the overall population variability in these rates, how could the hypothesized difference in ridership levels be statistically validated?
Simple linear regression
Urban geographers have long thought that home lot size is larger the greater the distance from the city center. What technique would you apply to confirm this hypothesis and predict the lot size of a home six miles from the city center?
Systematic Sampling
Wanda Wolf, the head of scientific research at Redrock National Park, wants to determine the attitudes of park visitors regarding various Park activities and services. She decides to give a survey questionnaire to every tenth car entering the Park. What type of sample is Wanda planning to take?
Two sample difference test
cartographer is studying the map interpretation abilities of students at a university. A random sample of 12 seniors and 16 freshmen (28 students in all) answer a set of questions related to the map, and the 28 scores are placed in a single, overall rank order. How would the cartographer test the hypothesis that seniors have better interpretive abilities?