Question

Wetlands Government agencies carefully monitor water quality and its effect on wetlands (Reference: Environmental Protection Agency Wetland Report EPA 832-R-93-005). Of particular concern is the concentration of nitrogen in water draining from fertilized lands. Too much nitrogent can kill fish and wildlife. Twenty-eight samples of water were taken at random from a lake. The nitrogen concentration (milliagrams of nitrogen per liter of water) was determined for each sample.

a) Identify the variable.
b) is the variable quantitatie or qualitative?
c) What is the implied population?

Answer 1

a. Concentration of nitrogen in water draining from fertilized lands

b. Quantitative

c. Water draining from fertilized lands

Explanation:

a. Here we are evaluating the Concentration in miligrams of Nitrogen per liter of water, that drains from fertilized lands.. So thats what is defined as the variable.

b. When we talk about qualitative variblaes, we refer to variables that we can't define with numbers. For example the colour of a car, that's a qualitative variable. In this problem, can put a number on the nitrogen concetration. When we can measure the variable with numbers we consider it to be a quantitative variable. Therefore this is a quantitative variable

c. The implied population is the population where we want to interfer the analysis. In here we want to know the concentration of water draining from fertilized lands. So we are using random samples from a lake, and we extrapolate that analysis to a bigger universe, that it´s the water draining from fertilized lands