Minitab Instructions for Chapter 2 Technology Exercise

Manipulating Data (Question 1)

  1. Label the first column as x
  2. (Optional) Label the second column as a, the third as b, and the fourth as c
  3. Enter the five values into the x column
  4. Go to Stat / Basic Statistics / Display Descriptive Statistics
    1. The variable to describe is x
    2. Click on Statistics
      1. Turn on the mean, median, range, standard deviation, and variance
      2. Turn off all other statistics
      3. Click OK
    3. Click OK
    4. Type the values into the row marked x in the table of the Word document
  5. Go to Calc / Calculator
    1. Store the results into a (or C2 if you didn't name the columns)
    2. The expression is x+30
    3. Click OK
  6. Go to Stat / Basic Statistics / Display Descriptive Statistics
    1. The variable to describe is a
    2. Click OK
    3. Type the values into the row marked x+30 in the table of the Word document
  7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the remaining two calculations.
    1. Use columns b and c
    2. Use the expressions x/10 and 5*(x-20)

Answer the questions in general terms, not specifically based on the examples used. For example, if you notice that the mean is 30 more when you add 30 to all the values, don't say that, say something like "When you add a constant to all the values, that same constant is added to the mean." Don't limit yourself to just the 30.

Alternative Instructions

You can do all of the Calc / Calculator steps first and then display all of the descriptive statistics at once by selecting more than one variable.

Pie Chart (Question 2)

  1. Label two columns as grade and percent
  2. Enter A, B, C, D, F, and W into the grade column
  3. Enter the percents into the percent column. Do not put the percent sign at the end.
  4. Go to Graph / Pie Chart
    1. Your chart values are in a table
    2. The categorical variable is the grade
    3. The summary variable is the percent
    4. Click on Labels
      1. Set the graph title to "Grade Distribution for Math 113"
      2. Switch to Slice Labels and turn on Category Name and Percent
    5. Click OK
  5. Now enhance the graph by double clicking on portions of the graph and editing them
    1. Increase the font size on the labels.
    2. Delete the legend
    3. (Optional) Change the fill or colors of the slices.
  6. Copy the graph (Right click and choose Copy Graph)
  7. Switch to Word and paste the graph into Word.

Resizing the Graph in Word

The default size of a graph in Minitab is 6" by 4". That will fill up the entire width of the page in Word and you may wish to make it a little smaller so it doesn't waste so much space.

  1. Click the graph in Word once. This will put handles on the corners and middles of the graphic.
  2. Click on one of the handles in the upper right or lower right of the graph and drag the image smaller

Alternative, Consistent Way to Resize the Graph

  1. Right click the mouse button on the graph and choose Format Object
  2. Select the Size tab
  3. Enter 3 in the height box. This will set the image to 4.5" wide by 3" high. Alternatively, you can go to the scale boxes and set the value to 75% (you can go smaller if you want to).
  4. Click OK

Graphical Summary (Question 3)

  1. Open the finalgrades.mtw file from the website into Minitab.
  2. Go to Stat / Basic Statistics / Graphical Summary
    1. The variable is final
    2. Click OK
  3. Right click the mouse on the graph and choose Copy Graph
  4. Switch to Word and Paste the graph into Word
  5. Depending on the size of the graph, you may want to resize it. See instructions for question 2 to resize a graph.

Go to Math 113 Technology Exercises page.

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Last updated September 29, 2005 8:44 PM