Practice final examination
LSP 120
Patrick Callahan
November 15, 2010
Instructions:
1. Do not open any programs other than Excel and Word and do not open any files other than those used in the exam. Turn off and put out of sight any other papers or electronic devices. If I see any violation of this rule, I will judge it as evidence of cheating and the violator will get an F on the final.
2. Open a Word document and place your DePaul id# (but not your name) in the upper right-hand corner. See me if you do not remember your id#.
3. Do not copy the question into the Word document. Just provide the question number and your answer. Show your work if you would like to have the chance of getting part credit.
4. Links to files you need to open can be accessed through the course home page, linked by “Final examination files.” In the questions below, the names of linked files are printed in underlined bold italics.
5. For the final itself: When you have finished, staple the worksheets to the printed Word document and hand it in to me. You may leave when you have finished the examination. For this practice exam: When you are finished, you may leave; return, if you wish, at 12:20 for a review of the answers.
CPI
1. Open Average Baseball Salaries 1967-1997 and CPI.
a. Convert the average salary [column C] to constant dollars using 1969 as the base. Make a graph of the salaries 1969-1997 converted to constant dollars and the current value salaries and paste this graph in your Word document. [Do not worry about the values on the horizontal axis. I have been unable to fix whatever glitch exists in the Excel file.]
b. In a brief paragraph, explain what the constant dollar graph is showing.
LINEAR OR EXPONENTIAL?
2. During her career, a successful lawyer increased her fees by 5% per year over her charge for the previous year. Would the growth in her prices be linear or exponential? Explain with sufficient detail that you demonstrate that you understand the definitions of linear and exponential growth.
3. Open the file Freedonia Oil Production. Is the decline in its production linear, exponential, or neither. Explain your answer so that you make it clear that you aren’t guessing.
LINEAR MODELS
4. Add a linear trendline to the constant dollar series in the chart you created for problem 1. Copy the equation and the R-square value into your Word document.
4. Refer to the chart of the number of cell phone subscribers (below or next page).
a. What does the formula for the trend line tell you precisely about the trend in cell phone subscribers? [Pay attention to the scale of the y-axis.]
b. Use the equation to predict the number of cell phone subscribers in 2008.
c. Use the equation to predict when there will be 900 million cell phone
subscribers. [Remember: This would be 900,000 units of 1000; the data are in
thousands.]
EXPONENTIAL MODELS
5. What is the general formula for exponential growth?
6. For the following three questions, suppose that (a) the population in a suburban county is 70,000, (b) the population growing at 3% per year, (c) you are working for that county and (d) your manager tells you to estimate how many years the country has before its population passes 200,000. Assume that the population growth rate stays at 3% per year,
7. Suppose person’s body weight was 30% fat. She then started an exercise and diet program that caused a 10% reduction in body fat each month. Create an Excel file showing the amount of body fat for each month of the program. Copy and paste the rows showing the month number and body fat percentage for the months when the body fat level reached and fell below 5%.
CENTRAL TENDENCY
8. For the following questions, open the file State Population.
a. Compute the mean and median populations of U.S. states. Enter the information into your exam answers, clearly indentifying each.
COMPOUND GROWTH
9. After purchasing a car, you decide to start saving for a home. This year the company that you work for made a huge profit and you received a $10,000 (after-tax) bonus. You decide to deposit this money in a 5-year CD with an APR of 5% that compounds monthly.
a. How much money will you have after 4 years?
c. What is the annual percentage yield on this account?
DEBT AMORTIZATION
10. Create an amortization table showing the payment schedule for a 3-year, $20,000, 8% automobile loan. How much will you have paid in total for your used Hummer?