The Cozine Corporation operates a garbage hauling business. Up to this point, the company has been charged a flat fee for each of the garbage trucks that enters the county landfill. The flat fee is based on the assumed truck weight of 45,000 pounds. In two weeks, the company is required to appear before the county commissioners to discuss a rate adjustment. In preparation for this meeting, Cozine has hired an independent company to weigh a sample of Cozine’s garbage trucks just prior to their entering the landfill. The data file Cozine contains the data the company has collected.
a. Based on the sample data, what percentile does the 45,000-pound weight fall closest to?
b. Compute appropriate measures of central location for the data.
c. Construct a frequency histogram based on the sample data. Use the 2k ≥ n guideline (see Chapter 2) to determine the number of classes. Also, construct a box and whisker plot for these data. Discuss the relative advantages of histograms and box and whisker plots for presenting these data.
d. Use the information determined in parts a–c to develop a presentation to the county commissioners. Make sure the presentation attempts to answer the question of whether Cozine deserves a rate reduction.