Assessing Claims Made by a Pizza Chain

Abstract

A pizza chain in Australia made a number of claims about the size of its pizzas relative to those from another pizza chain. Interestingly, the pizza chain made publically available the data upon which those claims were made. The claims of the pizza company can be assessed using these data. Instructors can use the data to guide students to form research questions and hypotheses; to produce numerous graphical, numerical and tabular summaries; and for conducting some simple analyses such as one- and two-sample t-tests. Notes are made on how the data can be used to demonstrate the importance of initial data analysis, and the importance of understanding the source of the data and the research design. In addition, suggestions are made for how students can use these results in a way that taps students' creative potential.

• Initial data analysis
• t-tests
• Boxplots
• Study design
• Real data