Chapter 1 1
Chapter 1
Introduction, descriptive statistics,
Python and data visualization
Exercises
Chapter 1 CONTENTS 2
Contents
1 Introduction, descriptive statistics, Python and data visualization
Exercises 1
1.1 Infant birth weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Course Grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Cholesterol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 Project start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.5 Descriptive statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6 Reading speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter 1 CONTENTS 3
Initilize Python packages
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import [Link] as stats
import [Link] as plt
import [Link] as sm
import [Link] as smprop
Chapter 1 1.1 INFANT BIRTH WEIGHT 4
1.1 Infant birth weight
Exercise 1.1 Infant birth weight
In a study of different occupational groups the infant birth weight was recorded
for randomly selected babies born by hairdressers, who had their first child.
The following table shows the weight in grams (observations specified in sorted
order) for 10 female births and 10 male births:
Females (x) 2474 2547 2830 3219 3429 3448 3677 3872 4001 4116
Males (y) 2844 2863 2963 3239 3379 3449 3582 3926 4151 4356
Solve at least the following questions a)-c) first “manually” and then by the in-
built functions in Python. It is OK to use Python as alternative to your pocket
calculator for the “manual” part, but avoid the inbuilt functions that will pro-
duce the results without forcing you to think about how to compute it during
the manual part.
a) What is the sample mean, variance and standard deviation of the female
births? Express in your own words the story told by these numbers. The
idea is to force you to interpret what can be learned from these numbers.
b) Compute the same summary statistics of the male births. Compare and
explain differences with the results for the female births.
c) Find the five quartiles for each sample — and draw the two box plots with
pen and paper (i.e. not using Python.)
d) Are there any “extreme” observations in the two samples (use the modified
box plot definition of extremeness)?
e) What are the coefficient of variations in the two groups?
Chapter 1 1.2 COURSE GRADES 5
1.2 Course Grades
Exercise 1.2 Course grades
To compare the difficulty of 2 different courses at a university the following
grades distributions (given as number of pupils who achieved the grades) were
registered:
Course 1 Course 2 Total
Grade 12 20 14 34
Grade 10 14 14 28
Grade 7 16 27 43
Grade 4 20 22 42
Grade 2 12 27 39
Grade 0 16 17 33
Grade -3 10 22 32
Total 108 143 251
a) What is the median of the 251 achieved grades?
b) What are the quartiles and the IQR (Inter Quartile Range)?
Chapter 1 1.3 CHOLESTEROL 6
1.3 Cholesterol
Exercise 1.3 Cholesterol
In a clinical trial of a cholesterol-lowering agent, 15 patient cholesterol (in mmol L−1 )
was measured before treatment and 3 weeks after starting treatment. Data is
listed in the following table:
Patient 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Before 9.1 8.0 7.7 10.0 9.6 7.9 9.0 7.1 8.3 9.6 8.2 9.2 7.3 8.5 9.5
After 8.2 6.4 6.6 8.5 8.0 5.8 7.8 7.2 6.7 9.8 7.1 7.7 6.0 6.6 8.4
a) What is the median of the cholesterol measurements for the patients before
treatment, and similarly after treatment?
b) Find the standard deviations of the cholesterol measurements of the pa-
tients before and after treatment.
c) Find the sample covariance between cholesterol measurements of the pa-
tients before and after treatment.
d) Find the sample correlation between cholesterol measurements of the pa-
tients before and after treatment.
e) Compute the 15 differences (Dif = Before − After) and do various sum-
mary statistics and plotting of these: sample mean, sample variance, sam-
ple standard deviation, boxplot etc.
Chapter 1 1.3 CHOLESTEROL 7
f) Observing such data the big question is whether an average decrease in
cholesterol level can be “shown statistically”. How to formally answer
this question is presented in Chapter 3, but consider now which summary
statistics and/or plots would you look at to have some idea of what the
answer will be?
Chapter 1 1.4 PROJECT START 8
1.4 Project start
Exercise 1.4 Project start
a) Go to Learn or the course website and take a look at the first project. Read
the project page on the course (02323/02402/02403) website for more in-
formation. Read the project description. Follow the steps to import the
data into Python and get started with the explorative data analysis.
Chapter 1 1.5 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 9
1.5 Descriptive statistics
Exercise 1.5 Descriptive statistics
This exercise should be solved without any use of Python. You are allowed to
use a simple pocket calculator.
The table below shows a sample of 10 measurements. The data is reported in
sorted order.
Measurement (x) 256 258 266 296 314 318 326 353 380 391
a) What is the mean of the sample?
b) Find the minimum, maximum and the quartiles (Q1, Q2 and Q3) of the
sample.
c) What is the sample range and Inter Quartile Range (IQR)?
d) Compute the 35’th percentile of the sample.
e) Are there any "extreme" values in the sample? (use the modified box plot
definition of extremeness)
f) Draw a boxplot of the sample (using pen and paper).
The table below shows another sample of only 5 measurements. (this time not
reported in sorted order).
Measurement (y) 2 5 3 4 3
g) Draw a cumulative distribution plot of the sample (using pen and paper).
Chapter 1 1.6 READING SPEED 10
1.6 Reading speed
Exercise 1.6 Reading speed
This exercise should be solved without any use of Python. You are allowed to
use a simple pocket calculator.
In an elementary school, 5 pupils participated in a short training class to im-
prove reading speed. The number of pages that each pupil could read within
a certain amount of time was measured both before and after the training had
taken place:
Pupil 1 2 3 4 5
Before training 3 2.5 4 3 3.5
After training 3.5 3 5 2.5 4
a) Draw a scatter plot of the data (using pen and paper). Express in your
own words the story told by this plot.
b) What is the mean number of pages read, both before and after the train-
ing?
c) What is the standard deviation of the number of pages read, both before
and after the training?
d) What is the coefficient of variation (CV) of the number of pages read, both
before and after the training?
e) Express in your own words the story told by the numbers calculated above.
Chapter 1 1.6 READING SPEED 11
f) Find the sample covariance between observations before and after train-
ing.
g) Find the sample correlation between observations before and after train-
ing. Express in your own words how you would interpret this result. Does
the result fit with the plot you made in question (a)?
h) Calculate the 5 differences (Dif = After − Before) to obtain the achieved
"effect" for each pupil. Calculate the mean of these differences. Express in
your own words how you could use these differences (instead of the raw
data) to analyse the effect of the training class on reading speed.
i) Observing such data the big question is whether an average increase in
reading speed can be “shown statistically”. How to formally answer this
question is presented later in the course, but consider now how you would
answer such a question?