Mini-project.

Answer the following questions about census and polls

1. The U.S. Census Bureau collects all sorts of information about the population of the
United States. Go to the Census Bureau site: www.census.gov.
One of the main things that the Census Bureau does is keep track of population sizes.
You should be able to easily be able to answer the following questions from information
or links on the Census Bureau home page.
a. What is the present population size of the United States?
321 942 331
2. The Gallup Organization is world renowned for its polls. Go to their web site at
www.gallup.com. Click on the Obama Approval on the Gallup daily. What sample size did
Gallup use to obtain the information from this poll. (You can download Complete Trend to find
it)
Approximately 1,500 national adults; Margin of error is 3 percentage points.
3. Suppose the legislature is thinking about putting a high tax on SUVs in order to
discourage consumers from spending money on vehicles that do not get good gas
mileage. Suppose you are asked to do a poll to find out if people think this tax is a good
idea.
a. How would you word the question to make it likely that people would say they favor
this law?
To make it likely the respondents would say they favor this law, I would tell and
clarify to the respondents about the benefits and advantages of implementing this law
before asking them whether they should support this idea or not.
b. How would you work the question to make it likely that people would say they did not
favor this law?
To make it likely that people would say they did not favor this law, I would tell and
clarify to the respondents about the bad effects and disadvantages of implementing this law
before asking them whether they should support this idea or not.

Malaysia
4) Go to the increasingly popular Merdeka Center for Opinion Research website below:
http://www.merdeka.org/pages/02_research.html
Open the Poll Report on PMs approval rating slides on increasing economic
worries

a) What type of sampling technique was used for this poll?

b) What is the sample size of this poll? How many of from the sample are Malay, Chinese
and Indians? From your answer in a) describe on how you think the selection of
respondents for the sample was conducted.
c) Compare the sample size use in the PMs approval rating slip with question 2).