Calculator User Manual

32

Waiting time investigation

Onaverage,howlongdocustomerswaitinyourschoolcanteenqueuebeforetheyhave

completedtheirpurchases?Inthisactivityyouwillbeinvestigatingthisquestionandevaluating

theresults.

Equipment required

· Awatchthatmeasurestimeinminutesandseconds

· Penandpaperforrecordingresults

· ACasiofx82AUPLUScalculator

What you have to do

· Ingroupsof3assigneachpersononeoftherolesoftimer,recorderorcustomerselector.

· Arrangefordifferentgroupstomeasurecustomerwaitingtimesatthebeginning,middle

andendofbuyingtimes.

· Tomakesureyourresultsarevaliditisimportanttochoosearandomsampleof

customerstotime.The‘customerselector’willusethecalculator’srandomnumber

generatortochoosecustomers.SetthecalculatortoLine10andfixthedisplaytoshow2

decimalplaces.WhenyoupressSHIFT. pthecalculatorwillshowadecimal

number.Iftherandomnumberislessthan0.50selectthenextcustomerthatjoinstheline

totime.Eachtimeyoupresspanotherrandomnumberwillbedisplayed.

· The‘timer’measuresthetimefromwhentheselectedcustomerjoinsthequeueuntilthey

moveawayfromthecounter.

· Recordthetimeforatleast10randomlyselectedcustomers.

Calculating the mean (average) time

· SetthecalculatortostatisticsbypressingMODEthen2(forstats)then1(for1

VAR).

· Usethe xbuttontoenterthewaitingtimesinminutesandseconds.e.g.enter2minutes

and35secondsbypressing2 x 35 x andthecalculatorwilldisplaythe

amountautomaticallyas2.5833minutes.AfteryouhaveenteredallthetimespressC.

ThenpressSHIFT1(stats) 4(Var).Thescreenoptionsshowthatpressing2will

givethemean.Press2thenptofindthemeanofthetimes.Thecalculatorwillshow

thetimeasadecimal.PressSHIFTx toshowthetimeinminutesandseconds.

Evaluating your results

· Comparetheresultsfromdifferentgroups.Aretheythesame?Iftheyaredifferent

suggestareasonforthedifference.

· Usetheinformationtodeterminewhethercustomershavetowaittoolong.Ifthetimes

aretoolong,canyousuggestawaytoshortenthetime?

Who is interested in your results?

Writeareportofyourinvestigationandyourfindings.Givethereporttosomeonewhocan

implementanysuggestionsyoucanmake.