The final exam will contain 12-15 questions identical to are very similar to the following. Some of these questions will be explicitly done using Excel.

1. Explain what an expectation value is and how that forms the basis for estimating statistical probabilities.

2. I wish to give 15% of my class and A on a midterm exam but I also want those students to get more than 87% on the midterm exam. My exam has an average score of 79%. What must the standard deviation on my exam be in order to meet my goals?

3. Be prepared to explicitly compute the value of chi^2 given some data pertaining to rolling dice

4. Be prepared to explicitly calculate doubling times from exponentially growing data and to extrapolate that data to future times.

5. Know how to apply the two way chi² statistic.

6. Review estimation techniques.

7. Explain why, in the longer run (e.g. greater than 100 years) methane is likely to be the dominant greenhouse gas in the Earth's atmosphere

8. Explain why the "hockey stick" diagram is not particularly compelling evidence that supports the case for global warming.

9. Physically explain how the presence of a planetary atmosphere leads to a "greenhouse" effect.

10. Explain why hurricane "statistics" are a poor indicator of global climate change.

11. Explain why an estimate of the demographic potential of a species, k, provides an important indicator of how habitat loss can be used to determine the decline in species population

13. Why does water vapour act as the primary greenhouse gas on the Earth?

14. Explain the concept of density-dependent lag time in predator prey relations.

15. What is the principle difference between logistic growth and pure exponential growth.

16. Explain how the Lotka-Volterra model predicts cycling between prey and predator relations. Under what conditions can equilibrium (or temporary equilibrium) be reached.

17. Explain how the concept of predator "handling time" acts as a feedback that can control prey density.

18. Explain how the KS tests works and why it is not sensitive to the particular details of the statistical distribution of the sample.

19. Be prepared to use Excel to generate a KS test comparison between a data set and a model Gaussian distribution.

20. In calculating the effects of habitat loss on a species, three critical variables are used: p, h and k. Explain what each of these are and which of these there is the most important to accurately measure.

21. Briefly describe some techniques you can employ when you are working with noisy data

22. Explain some of the difficulties associated with producing an accurate estimation of the projected US population in the year 2050.

23. If each step I take is 2 feet and I take 1600 steps, each one in a random direction, on average, how far have I moved from my point of origin?

24. Explain how the central limit theorem helps show the statistical power of independent and random sampling of some parent population.

25. Explain why finite age effects (the W parameter) have such a strong effect on the crash rate (e.g. negative growth rate) of mammalian populations

26. What assumptions need to be made to treat observed data as a Poission distribution?

27. On average, 4 dead armadillos appear in every 1 mile of Texas highway. What is the probability of there being 6 dead armadillos in one mile of Texas highway.

28. Summarize why energy production is our greatest environmental problem to solve in the near term.

29. What is the value of using statistics to assist in building and testing models?

30. Explain why this problem can't be solved using Poisson Statistics:

    Your sailing out on Lake Memphremagog (yes its a real place). Your sailing from South to North in order to become an illegal alien in Canada. Your also a technogeek and are taking data on the wind speed per mile. Here is your data:

     * First Mile: speed = 10 mph
     * Second Mile: speed = 7 mph
     * Third Mile: speed = 14 mph
     * Fourth Mile: speed = 17 mph
     * Fifth Mile: speed = 9 mph 
     

    Your non-technogeek sailing companion makes a bet with you that the wind speed between mile 8 and 9 will be 17 mph. What is the probabilty that they will win this bet?
    
    
    
    
    
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