a) It is known that in the province of Quebec, 49% of households have at least one cat or dog in residence. To test a new random dialing telephone system, an agency asked 1200 adults the following question: "Do you have at least one cat or dog living in your home?" This sampling exercise was repeated 6 times with the same sample size. The following are the results (in %) for those who said "yes" to the above question: 40%, 41%, 38%, 39%, 39% and 40%. (7 pts)

i) Do these sample percentages show high or low bias?

ii) Do these sample percentages show high or low variability?

Explain your answers, being sure to include what is meant by bias and variability.

b) identify which of the following is a sampling error and which is a non-sampling error. (8 pts) i) The researcher accidentally and unknowingly deletes 26 records from his sample data base ii) The elderly subjects of a survey have trouble remembering the details you are asking about iii) You send a young female interviewer to ask young men whether or not they have ever hit their girlfriend iv) You use the telephone book as a sampling frame to select subjects for a survey on home-ownership v) In a door to door survey on the health status of elderly residents at a home, some do not come to the door vi) Respondents intentionally or unintentionally misreport their salaries vii) You send a teacher to survey students in her college on their use of marijuana viii) Your poll results have a huge margin of error

c)The starting annual salary of a secretary at Opulence Insurance Firm in the year 1987 was $16,000. How much would the starting salary have to be in the year 2003 for the secretary to have equivalent buying power? The CPI in 1987 was 78.1. The CPI in 2003 was 122.3. (5 pts)

A business woman must purchase computers, printers, scanners and fax machines to equip her office. Her purchases, their quantity and price for both 1994 and 2004 are given below. (10 pts)