What measures of central tendency, dispersion, or position discussed in Unit 2 have you been reading about or listening to in the news today? For example, lately there have been numerous news reports on the mean price of gas or the median price of homes in a particular state, etc. Is the measure you discuss in your post being used correctly? Why or why not?

What additional questions would you want to ask the author of the news article/story you are discussing to determine if the data they are reporting on is being reported correctly?

 
You are in a brainstorming session at WidgeCorp, where no idea is too outrageous. You are discussing penetration in the school lunch market. Ideas around school lunch subsidies, Internet subsidies, and Internet target marketing are being discussed. As the end of the meeting, the group asks you to prove or disprove some assumptions by looking at correlations.

First, acquaint yourself with the Internet subsidy issue by reading the article Closing the Digital Divide: Internet Subsidies in Public Schools by Austan D. Goolsbee and Jonathan Guryan.

Link to article below is:

http://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/summer03/digitaldivide.html

Next, download the file Sample Data (uploaded). Based on the findings as reported in this article, prepare a chart similar to the one in the downloaded file to indicate if the correlation between Variables A and B were found to be positive, negative, or minimal.

In your own words, explain what it means if the correlation of 2 variables is positive, negative, or minimal (close to 0), and give an example of each.

Reference

Goolsbee, A. D., & Guryan, J. (2003). Closing the digital divide: Internet subsidies in public schools. Capital Ideas, 5(1). Retrieved from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business Web site: http://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/summer03/digitaldivide.html