The Time T.V. Takes … Cory Williams Winter 2010

Question & Hypothesis Question Hypothesis What are my T.V. watching habits? Hypothesis I watch T.V. for a relatively short period of time(1 hour) I watch T.V. mostly between 9:00 PM and midnight I watch T.V. mostly on the weekends(Saturday & Sunday) I watch a much higher percentage of entertainment programs than educational programs In today’s society the amount of time people watch T.V. makes up a significant portion of their lives. I knew that I watched a significant amount of T.V., but I wanted to know if I had any habits or patterns associated with it. Over an interval of 4 weeks, I collected data on my T.V. watching habits. Specifically, I wanted to know how long I watched T.V. every time I turned it on, what times of the day I most frequently watched T.V., what days of the week I spent watching the most T.V. and whether the programs I watched were “productive”. Before my experiment I predicted my time intervals of watching T.V. would be relatively low, about an hour, I would watch T.V. mostly from 9:00 PM to midnight, the highest percentage of my T.V. watching time would be on the weekends(i.e. Saturday and Sunday), and I would watch a much higher percentage of entertainment programs than educational programs.

Time Intervals of T.V. Watching For the periods of time I watched T.V. I thought a histogram would be the best way to display my findings. As you can see on the graph I watched T.V. mostly for a period of 30 minutes to an hour(17 times). My average period was roughly an hour and 32 minutes. Before the experiment I had predicted my T.V. watching period to be around an hour. Even though my two most frequently watched periods were 30 minutes to an hour and an hour to an hour and a half, my average was almost 30 minutes more than my prediction. I believe there is too much of a difference between my prediction and my result to call my hypothesis correct.

Time of the Day T.V. Was Turned On To figure out what time of the day I watched T.V. the most I made a histogram of what time I turned on the T.V. every time I watched it. From my data I figured the time I turned on the T.V. would best represent what time of the day I watched T.V.. From the graph, it is clear to see that I turned on the T.V. mostly between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM(20 times). The average time I turned the T.V. on was about 5:45 PM. I had predicted that the time of day I most frequently watched T.V. was between 9:00 PM and midnight. Even though my average was 5:45 PM it would be wrong to say that I watch T.V. mostly at that time because I turned on the T.V. most frequently between 8:00 PM and midnight. Because my average watching time was an hour and 32 minutes, I believe that this added to the T.V. turn on time gives a good estimate of what time of the day I watched T.V. the most. This falls right into my range of 9:00 PM to midnight making my hypothesis valid.

Hours of T.V. Watched Each Day of the Week To find out what days of the week I watched T.V. the most I made a box & whisker plot using the summation of hours I watched T.V. each day and splitting them up into the days of the week. Since my sample was over 4 weeks each day of the week has 4 data points. On the plot it is easy to see that the two days with the greatest hours of T.V. watched were Saturday and Sunday. Their 1st quartiles are higher than any of the weekdays 3rd quartiles. My hypothesis about what days I watched T.V. the most was Saturday and Sunday. I believe that this data backs up my hypothesis and verifies it. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Min 1 0.5 0.75 2.5 Q1 0.62525 0.5625 1.3125 4.9375 4 Median 2 1.0835 2.25 6.25 4.54 Q3 3.25 1.5625 3.4375 3.7075 6.4375 5.185 Max 1.75 5.83 6 7 IQR 0.93725 2.875 2.395 1.5 1.185

Educational vs. Entertainment In my experiment I also wanted to know how “productive” my T.V. watching time was. To do this I separated each program I watched into two categories; educational or entertainment. To make my data unbiased I made a test which the program had to pass to be considered educational. There were two criteria. The first was the material in the program would have to be something that would be a main or side topic in an academic class. Secondly, I had to learn something from the program. From the data I collected I made a simple bar chart of the total hours I spent watching educational programs vs. entertainment programs. From the chart you can see that I dominantly watched more hours of entertainment programs than educational programs. The numbers came out to me watching 36% more, 29 hours more, of entertainment programs than educational programs. I had predicted that I would watch significantly more entertainment programs than educational programs. I believe that 36% more entertainment programs than educational programs is significant enough to confirm my prediction.

Summary Results My average T.V. time watched was an hour and 32 minutes. Different from the hour I had predicted. The time I most frequently turned the T.V. on was from 8:00 PM to 10:00 PM causing my time when I most frequently watched T.V. to fall into the 9:00 PM to midnight time frame I had hypothesized. The days I most frequently watched T.V. were Saturday and Sunday, the same days as I had anticipated. I watched considerably more entertainment programs than educational programs, 36% more. I had predicted a high percentage difference and I believe 36% would be in that range.