Chapter 8 Discovery Project

Industry Statistics

Pick an industry (software companies, computer manufacturers, oil, etc.) and research the financial information about companies in that industry. The internet, your library, and the prospectus from each of the companies may be useful resources to help you with your research. Also, select a statistic to track or follow about the companies such as sales, profit, revenue, etc. Using the information that you gather about the companies, answer the following questions.

  1. Identify the population of interest.

  2. Select a random sample of 10 companies in the industry that you've selected and record at least three variables of interest for each of the companies.

  3. Compute the average and standard deviation of each variable of interest.

  4. Compute the standard error of each variable of interest.

  5. Discuss what you have learned about the statistics you studied and the companies in your population.

  6. Identify the sources used for this project.