Chapter 3, Problem 5CRP

In west Texas, water is extremely important. The following data represent pH levels in groundwater for a random sample of 102 west Texas wells. A pH less than 7 is acidic and a pH above 7 is alkaline. Scanning the data, you can see that water in this region tends to be hard (alkaline). Too high a pH means the water is unusable or needs expensive treatment to make it usable (Reference: C. E. Nichols and V. E. Kane. Union Carbide Technical Report K/UR-I).

x: pH of Ground Water in 102 West Texas Wells

7.0	7.0	7.0	7.0	7.0	7.0	7.0	7.0	7.1	7.1	7.1	7.1
7.1	7.1	7.1	7.1	7.1	7.1	7.2	7.2	7.2	7.2	7.2	7.2
7.2	7.2	7.2	7.2	7.3	7.3	7.3	7.3	7.3	7.3	7.3	7.3
7.3	7.3	7.3	7.4	7.4	7.4	7.4	7.4	7.4	7.4	7.4	7.4
7.5	7.5	7.5	7.5	7.5	7.5	7.5	7.5	7.6	7.6	7.6	7.6
7.6	7.6	7.6	7.6	7.6	7.7	7.7	7.7	7.7	7.7	7.7	7.8
7.8	7.8	7.8	7.8	7.9	7.9	7.9	7.9	7.9	8.0	8.1	8.1
8.1	8.1	8.1	8.1	8.1	8.2	8.2	8.2	8.2	8.2	8.2	8.2
8.4	8.5	8.6	8.7	8.8	8.8

Write a brief description in which you outline how you would obtain a random simple of 102 west Texas water wells, Explain how random numbers would be used in the selection process.

These data are also available for download at the Companion Sites for this text. For convenience, the data are presented in increasing order.