Chemistry Reference
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13.6
13.4
13.2
13
12.8
12.6
12.4
12.2
12
1
2
3
4
Trial
Figure 13.2
Standard Deviation of White Paper Airplane Flights
I began thinking that my prowess at paper airplanes wasn't quite what I had
imagined and decided to give it another try. I was out of my white copy paper
but was able to borrow several sheets of blue paper from a colleague. The
downstairs classroom was occupied, but I was able to find an empty classroom
on the second floor. I made and flew four blue paper airplanes and measured
the distance flown. They flew 16.8, 17.1, 17.5, and 16.6 feet. We can calculate
that the mean is 17.0 feet and the standard deviation is 0.68 feet. The results
from the four white airplanes with a mean of 12.8 feet can be graphically
compared (Figure 13.3).
It seems that the blue airplanes fly further than the white airplanes. There
are statistical tests that can be used to determine whether the blue airplane
results differ from the white airplane results in a significant way. Note that in
this context, the term “significant” means statistically significant and is not
the same as “important.” For example, a change in a polymer process may
result in a statistically significant difference in polymer tensile elongation,
White versus blue
20
15
10
5
0
White
Blue
Figure 13.3
White versus Blue Paper Airplane Flights
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