Luke Thorndike, founder and current president of Thorndike Sports Equipment, had guided the business through 34 successful years and was now interested in bringing his favorite grandson Ted into the company.

The elder Thorndike, possessed of a sharp but fading wit, begins the meeting with, "Great to see you, Ted. You always were a high-strung kid. Thought you might like to join our tennis racquet division." Ted counters, "Not quite, but you're getting warm, Luke." The Thorndikes have always been a strange bunch.

"Seriously, Ted, I'm getting a little up in years, the microcomputer I bought myself for Christmas is collecting dust, and I think you and your business degree could bring some new blood to the company. I'd like you to be my executive vice president. I've been running this outfit by the seat of my pants for a lot of years now, and the world just seems to be getting too big and too complicated these days. I've got index cards and file folders just about piled up to the ceiling in that little room next door, and there's got to be a better way of making sense of all this information. Maybe I shouldn't have fought the fire department when they wanted to condemn the place."

"Besides all these records piling up, a lot of technical developments are affecting our business ? things like composite bicycle wheels, aerodynamic golf balls, and oversize tennis racquets. Just yesterday one of our engineers came in and said she's come up with a new golf ball that will go farther than the conventional design. She seems trustworthy, but we might need to have some numbers to back up our claim if we decide to come out with the product."

After further discussion of the business and the position that Mr. Thorndike has proposed, Ted accepts the offer. As his first official duty, he sets up a test of the new golf ball that's supposed to travel farther than the conventional design. He decides to mix 25 of the new balls with 25 of the old type, have a golf pro hit all 50 of them at a driving range, then measure how far each goes. The results listed in the data file THORN.

(a) Using 10-yard intervals beginning with 200.0-under 210.0, 210.0-under 220.0, on up to 290.0-under 300.0, construct a frequency distribution for the distances traveled by the new ball.

(b) Using the same intervals as in part (a), construct a frequency distribution for the distances traveled by the conventional ball.

(c) Place the frequency distribution for the new ball next to the one for the conventional ball. Does it appear that the new ball might be more "lively" than the conventional ball?

NewBall ConBall 267.5 241.8 247.2 264.2 264.3 267.9 248.3 255.1 237.4 237.3 224.4 240.3 265.1 266.8 223.7 253.2 239.9 247.9 243.6 251.6 260.4 215.8 233.5 257.6 253.6 233.2 269.6 226.4 278.7 234.5 232.7 242.7 256.5 201.0 226.9 234.7 249.2 218.5 271.4 201.6 258.8 215.9 232.3 229.0 294.1 244.1 252.8 256.3 256.3 213.5