Geography 326: Introduction to Geographic
Research
Test 1 Practice Questions
SHOW ALL MAJOR STEPS
1. With positive skewness, is the mean greater than or less than the median?
2. Examine the following table carefully:
| Respondent |
Gender |
Marital Status(1) |
Year Born |
Education Level(2) |
Income(3) |
| J.S. |
M |
1 |
1970 |
2 |
4 |
| P.F. |
M |
2 |
1967 |
2 |
1 |
| A.A. |
F |
1 |
1972 |
2 |
2 |
| A.K. |
M |
2 |
1944 |
3 |
3 |
| J.N. |
F |
2 |
1950 |
1 |
3 |
| D.L. |
M |
1 |
1975 |
1 |
2 |
| N.M. |
F |
2 |
1962 |
3 |
3 |
| E.S. |
F |
2 |
1968 |
3 |
4 |
Notes:
1) 1=not married, 2=married
2) 1=primary, 2=high school, 3=college
3) 1= $0-19,999; 2= 20,000-39,999; 3= 40,000-59,999; 4=60,000-79,999
a) What is the median income of the
above group of respondents as reported in the table?
b) Find the most accurate mean income of the above group based on
all the information given above.
c) Of the two, the mean and median, which one is a more informative
measure of the income of the respondents? Why?
d) Which column(s) display(s) only nominal data? Give reasons for
your answer.
e) Which variables(s) can be considered as displaying ordinal data?
Explain why.
f) Which variables(s) can be considered as displaying interval data?
Explain why.
3. Consider the following set of values: 3, 3, 2, 5, 8, 2, 4, 1, 7, 5
a) Calculate the mean and standard
deviation.
b) Calculate the skewness.
c) Is the distribution skewed? If so is it positively or negatively
skewed? To which direction does the "tail" point?
4. Construct a Lorenz curve based on the following data to show the level
of equality of land ownership in a country. Note that a properly drawn Lorenz
curve should be relatively smooth. (Hint: Arrange the regions from land-poor
to land-rich.)
| Income Class |
Makes up % of Country's Population |
Owns % of Land in the Country |
| A |
20 |
10 |
| B |
40 |
10 |
| C |
2 |
15 |
| D |
20 |
15 |
| E |
8 |
30 |
| F |
10 |
20 |
5. Using the graph ("region") shown below,
a) Find the geographic (mean) center
of the following region.
b) Find the geographic center using the weighted mean method if the
population sizes (in millions) are: A=4, B=1, C=2, D=1. Why is this different
from the center found in (a)?
6. The two frequency distributions below, X and Y, are based on the same
scale and have the same mean and standard deviation. Which one of the below
statements is correct?
a) skewness of X > skewness of
Y
b) skewness of X < skewness of Y
c) none of the above.
7. Consider the following table:
| Household income per year |
# of households (frequency) |
|
| A. < 30,000 |
20 |
| B. 30,000 - 49,999 |
15 |
| C. 50,000 - 99,999 |
10 |
| D. 100,000 + |
5 |
a) Can you take a weighted mean of
this information? Why or why not?
b) Can you estimate the median? If so, what is it?