Question

To determine whether using a cell phone while driving in Louisiana increases the risk of an accident, a researcher examines accident reports to obtain data about the number of accidents in which a driver was talking on a cell phone.

a. Is this a randomized experiment or an observational study?

b. What is the population being studied here?

c. Is the number of accidents where the driver was using a cell phone a qualitative or quantitative variable?

d. Is the number of accidents where the driver was using a cell phone an ordinal, nominal, continuous, or discrete variable?

e. What kind of sample is taken if the researcher only examines accident reports in the parish in which he lives?

Answer 1

a) Observational study

b) Population of drivers in Louisiana who were involved in an accident as a result of talking on a cell phone while driving.

c) It is quantitative

d) It is discrete

e) The sample of the reports of all drivers who uses phone while driving and were involved in an accidents in the parish where the researcher lives only.

Explanation:

a) The study is not done in a controlled environment. It happens randomly. As we must know not all drivers who use phone while driving have accidents. So, it is observational study.

b) We are told in the question the population of interest.

c) Since we are interested in the number of accidents that happens within the population of interest. It is a count data and therefore, it is quantitative.

d) It is count data, thus it is discrete. That is, it cannot take a decimal point. It must be whole number.

e) The kind of sample taken must be from the population of interest.