Intro To Applied Stats Worksheet printable pdf download

Classroom Activity 2

Math 113

The Dating Game

Introduction:

Disclaimer: Although this is called the “Dating Game”, it is merely intended to help the student

gain understanding of the concept of Standard Deviation. It is not intended to help students find

dates.

The day after Thanksgiving, 1996, I was driving my sister,

Conversion Table

brother-in-law, and sister-in-law over to meet my brother in

A = 1

K = 11

U = 21

Springfield at the Mission where he and his wife helped out.

B = 2

L = 12

V = 22

During this drive, I ask my sister, “How do you know

C = 3

M = 13

W = 23

which woman is the right one for you?”. Now, my sister

D = 4

N = 14

X = 24

was born a Jones, and like the rest of the family, she can

E = 5

O = 15

Y = 25

make anything sound believable. Without missing a beat,

F = 6

P = 16

Z = 26

she said, “You take the letters in her name, convert them to

G = 7

Q = 17

numbers, find the standard deviation, and whoever’s

H = 8

R = 18

standard deviation is closest to yours is the woman for

= 9

S = 19

you.” I was so proud of my sister, that was a really good

= 10

T = 20

answer. Then, she followed it up with “Actually, if you can

find a woman who knows what a standard deviation is,

that’s the woman for you.”

The first part was easy, take each letter in your name and convert it to a number. Use the system

where an A=1, B=2, ... Z=26.

Mean

Standard Deviation

9.6 . J

6.986

Now, let’s interpret the results. The mean of my name is 9.6 which rounds to 10 which

corresponds to the letter J. So, the letters in my name are “centered” around the letter J. There is

no conversion of the standard deviation to a letter because the standard deviation is a measure of

dispersion — how spread out the letters are. It doesn’t make sense (in this case) to say that my

letters are G (6.986 . G) letters apart. But what the standard deviation tells us is that the

“average” (I use that word loosely - close to technically speaking, it is the quadratic mean of the

deviations rather than the arithmetic mean of the deviations, but that’s not important right now)

deviation is 7 letters.

An important thing to remember is that the order of the values does not affect the standard

deviation. In other words, the standard deviation of AEJMS would be the same as JAMES (but

I’m really glad my parents didn’t name me AEJMS).

Let’s take another name. This time, we’ll use the name SANDI (while not her given name, it’s

important to use the name the person goes by — or whichever name gives the standard deviation

closest to yours)

Intro To Applied Stats Worksheet

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