Question: Complete the assignment according to the requirements in the "Expectations for All Graded Work" document. Remember an answer without work shown or supporting explanation will receive little or no credit.
Note: Tutorial assistance is allowed.
1. Prostate Cancer and a Drug for Baldness
The drug finasteride is marketed as Propecia to help protect against male pattern baldness, and it also may protect against prostate cancer. A large sample of healthy men over age 55 were randomly assigned to receive either a daily finasteride pill or a placebo. The study lasted seven years and the men had annual check-ups and a biopsy at the end of the study. Prostate cancer was found in 804 of 4368 men taking finasteride and in 1145 of the 4692 men taking a placebo.
a. Is this an experiment or an observational study?
b. The study was double-blind; what does that mean?
c. What are the two variables in the study? What values do they take on? Are they categorical or quantitative?
d. Make a two-way table to display the results. Include the row and column totals.
e. What proportion of men in the study received finasteride? Use correct notation when reporting the answer.
f. What proportion of men in the study got prostate cancer? Use correct notation.
g. What proportion of men who took finasteride got prostate cancer? Use correct notation.
h. What proportion of men who took the placebo got cancer? Use correct notation.
i. Find the difference in the proportions of men who took the placebo got cancer and men who took finasteride got prostate cancer. Use correct notation.
j. Does finasteride appear to offer some protection against prostate cancer?
2. Distribution of Blocked Shots in the NBA
The variable Blocks in the dataset NBAPlayers2011 includes information on the number of blocked shots during the season for each of the 176 players in the dataset.
a. Use Statkey to find the mean, median and the standard deviation of the number of blocked shots. (Note: this dataset is preloaded into Statkey.)
b. Use Statkey to create a graph of the data in Blocks and then describe the shape of the distribution. Print out the graph and attach it to the assignment.
c. Which measure of center (mean or median) is greater and why? Explain how the graph created in part b) supports your answer.
d. Tim Duncan had 146 blocked shots in the 2011 season and Kobe Bryant had 12 blocked shots. Which is considered more unusual? Explain how you decided and justify with calculations.
e. Is it appropriate to use the 95% rule with these data? Why or why not?