Minitab Notes for Activity 2

Creating the Worksheet

Label two columns as x and y.
Enter the x and y values from the target to the center to the washer in each column

Calculating the Distances (Question 4)

You need to find the mean x and y values before completing this step.

Label two columns as d1 and d2
Choose Calc / Calculator
1. Store your results in d1
2. The expression is SQRT(x**2+y**2)
Repeat the Calc / Calculator command
1. Store your results in d2
2. The expression is SQRT((x-XBAR)**2+(y-YBAR)**2) where you replace the XBAR and YBAR by the mean for the x and y respectively

Summarizing the Data (Question 5)

Do this as a check for the x and y and to find the results for d1 and d2. I want you to find the values asked for by hand as practice for the test.

Minitab does not find the variation for you. Another name for Variation is Sum of Squares, but the Sum of Squares under the Statistics box is the uncorrected sum of squares, which is what you get if you just square the values and add them up, not the value we want which is found by subtracting the mean before squaring the values.

Choose Stat / Basic Statistics / Display Descriptive Statistics
Select the four variables x, y, d1, and d2 by either double clicking each one or by highlighting them all and clicking Select.
Click on Statistics
1. Turn on the box for Variance
2. Turn off the box for N Missing and SE Mean
3. Click OK
Click OK

You should get some output that looks like this.

Descriptive Statistics: john, sue
Variable  N   Mean  StDev  Variance  Minimum     Q1  Median     Q3  Maximum
john      6  6.267  2.242     5.027    3.400  4.375   5.900  8.725    9.100
sue       5  5.500  1.214     1.475    4.100  4.500   5.200  6.650    7.300

Check the sample size, mean, median, variance, and standard deviation with what you calculated by hand.