Introduction: A survey was given to 80 high school competitive swimmers to see how many yards each individual swims to warm up before a swim meet. The purpose of this experiment is to find out if the average warm up length is close to 500 yards, which professionals say is an adequate warm up before a meet.
Nature: The values numbered 1 to 50 are the swimmers chosen to be used in this experiment. The values 100-1000 (in increments of 50) are the yards swam for warm up before a swim meet by each swimmer.
Sampling: Cluster sampling was used in this experiment because noncompetitive swimmers could not participate. The population was broken into competitive swimmers and noncompetitive swimmers, allowing only one subgroup to be sampled in the experiment.
Biases: There is a nonresponse bias because certain individuals in the 80 swimmers sampled chose to not participate. Also, only 80 Garland High school competitive swimmers from 2009-2011 were surveyed, therefore the experiment contains more of a sample than a population. There was also a voluntary response because the swimmers were not required to participate in the survey.
Sample Size: 50
Minimum: 100
Maximum: 1000
Mean: 373
Median: 300
Range: 900
Standard Deviation: 186.07
Variance: 35327.55
Q1: 250
Q3: 400
Frequency Table:

Stem and Leaf Plot:

Histogram:

Box and Whisker Plot:


Conclusion: The average warm up length of a competitive high school swimmer is significantly less than the length professionals say to do before a meet. The most popular warm up length is a 300, 200 yards less than what competitive swimmers should do, according to the frequency table. The next popular is a 400, then 200 and 250 followed by a 500. Being the fourth most preferred warm up, there is statistical evidence that proves the swimmers didn't listen when they were told a 500 is an adequate warm up or the swimmers just didn't care. There were two biases in this experiment: one being cluster sampling, allowing only competitive swimmers to participate, and the other a nonresponse bias. Although the two biases show the experiment might not be representative of a large population, the results were quite accurate for the current Might Owl Swim Team.
Data:
1) Liam Kelly 500
2) Dustin Neal 600
3) Matt Hard 400
4) Jean Abbott 200
5) Sam Cariker 100
6) Liz Dimayuga 200
7) Dalia Martinez 200
8) Rose James 200
9) Collette Edwards 800
10) Daisy Martinez 300
11) Nathan Hard 200
12) Taylor Sigwing 250
13) Alex Quach 250
14) Austin Quach 200
15) Brooke Martinez 250
16) Ryan Sewalt 900
17) Johnathan Ler 200
18) Zack Kingsak 350
19) Casey Byrne 300
20) Alejandra Diaz 250
21) Carol Medina 250
22) Loren Kokojan 250
23) MIchael Nguyen 300
24) Gabe Palma 1000
25) Lauren Metzinger 400
26) Jeb Cariker 500
27) Raquel Palma 300
28) Erica Poe 400
29) Clara Tran 200
30) Ruben Olguin 350
31) Beatrice Secheli 400
32) Chris Bertaut 400
33) Shelby Jackson 300
34) Madeleine Palma 300
35) Jonathan Berry 400
36) Riley Byrne 300
37) Samantha Ernst 300
38) Stephanie Hutt 350
39) Emily Uhlmann 400
40) Christina Lawson 400
41) Daniel Olguin 250
42) Jonathon Stevenson 600
43) Ashley Malcom 500
44) Alec Bouton 700
45) Adam Melaku 300
46) Daniel Cabuya 700
47) Sabrina Palma 500
48) Thomas Le 400
49) Julian Robins 250
50) Brandon Kuehnhold 300

By Emily Edwards