Chicago Taxis Open the data file “ChicagoTaxi”, which is available in StatCrunch. The data file ChicagoTaxi is also available at www.pearsonhighered.com/sullivanstats. This data set represents the trip time, fare, and payment method for all taxi rides on July 25, 2017.
a. Determine the population mean fare of all taxi rides on July 25, 2017.

Verified step by step guidance

1. Open the data file "ChicagoTaxi" in StatCrunch or the provided source to access the dataset containing all taxi rides on July 25, 2017.
2. Identify the variable that represents the fare amount for each taxi ride in the dataset.
3. Recall that the population mean \( \mu \) is calculated by summing all individual fare values and then dividing by the total number of taxi rides \( N \). The formula is: \[ \mu = \frac{\sum_{i=1}^{N} x_i}{N} \] where \( x_i \) represents each individual fare.
4. Sum all the fare values from the dataset to get \( \sum_{i=1}^{N} x_i \).
5. Count the total number of taxi rides \( N \) in the dataset, then divide the total sum of fares by \( N \) to find the population mean fare.

Key Concepts

Population Mean

The population mean is the average value of a variable for the entire population. It is calculated by summing all individual values and dividing by the total number of observations. In this context, it represents the average fare of all taxi rides on the specified date.

Data Set and Variables

A data set is a collection of related data points, often organized in rows and columns. Each column represents a variable, such as trip time or fare. Understanding the structure of the ChicagoTaxi data set is essential to identify and extract the fare variable for analysis.

Using Statistical Software (StatCrunch)

StatCrunch is a statistical software tool used to analyze data sets efficiently. It allows users to compute descriptive statistics like the mean quickly. Familiarity with importing data and using StatCrunch functions is important to determine the population mean fare accurately.