Question

The archaeological site of Tara is more than 4000 years old. Tradition states that Tara was the seat of the high kings of Ireland. Because of it's archaeological importance, Tara has received extensive study (Reference: Tara: An Archaeological Survey by Conor Newman, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin). Suppose an archaeologist wants to estimate the density of ferromagnetic artifacts in the Tara region. For this purpose, a random sample of 55 plots, each of size 100 square meters, is used. The number of ferromagnetic artifacts for each plot is determined. (a) Identify the variable. number of samples per 100 square meters number of ferromagnetic artifacts per 100 square meters number of plots of 100 square meters all ferromagnetic artifacts (b) Is the variable quantitative or qualitative

Answer 1

a) the variable is the number of fragments per 100 square meters

b) the variable is quantitative

Explanation:

Data

a. The variable is an quantity that can be manipulated to achieve the desired result. For example, if we had the equation:

y = 2 x + 5

The variable will be x. Therefore, the output y depend on the input values of x.

In this question, the archaeologist wants to estimate the number of ferromagnetic artifacts . He can only do that by determining the artifacts per 100 square meters.

b. The variable is quantitative. It requires physical counting.