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Okay, genius SI members, I need some academic help.

I need to have a project idea for Statistics class. It needs to be based on a claim someone (anyone) else had made in print, on a website, in the media, etc. I also need to be able to test it.

The example my instructor gave us was M&M's. She said that the company claims that 40% of M&M's in any given bag. In order to test this, we would need to buy x amount of bags, and test their claim.

I would like a project similar to this. Preferably one that can be tested without talking to anyone, or buying anything too expensive.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thank you all, in advance!

You could test the amount of sugar in a can of soda.

You could look up a fast food joint's claims on how fast their service is, then go to a local branch and do a random sampling at various times of the day.

Do you have bran flakes in the US? As in, 'two scoops of raisins in every box of kellogs raisin bran'??

Well it used to be thought that the average time a man thought of sex was every 7 seconds. I knew that was BS...the latest study says men think of it 19 times a day, Women 10. So, I suggest you recruit as many friends who are willing to click say a golf shot counter every time they think of the nasty and do your own study. Worst case, you find out which friends have that "lovin feelin"

Thanks, everybody! I will be researching these to see which are most doable! You have all been an incredible help!

This is along the lines of the raisin bran idea, but could you test how many chips you actually get inside of those 1 oz size small bags of chips?

PS I called my brother and his wife who are both college professors and left a message to tell me if they had any ideas. Will let you know if they call back.

Do you remember the commercials for the tootsie pop? You could do a project on how many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center. They actually have a couple of studies already that you could base the project on.

http://www.tootsie.com/gal_machine.php

Do you have anything of personal interest that you can build off of? Like a hobby you are passionate about, etc?

My professors always said if you pick a subject you enjoy - it helps.

They were right....I know writing a paper on my favorite book was MUCH better than something you were assigned to read but had little interest in.

So like if you are a gum chewer...maybe you could validate all these adds that say their gum has the longest lasting flavor, etc.

Well, I am pretty passionate about nutrition, as well as genetically modified organisms.

I found a blog where a woman claimed that 60% of processed food on supermarket shelves contains soy-derived products (under other names).

I wrote my initial proposal to test this claim, since it has a specific proportion that I can prove or disprove.

jennie160, that is a great idea, except that I would need someone else to actually lick on of those nasty things, LOL (and can you imagine how raw your tongue would get?).

There is a specific mathematical formula that must be used to determine how many trials you need to run (in the case of Tootsie Pops, a trial would be one Tootsie Pop). I'm trying to keep my trials to something reasonable.

Tank you, everybody! letitout, let me know if they get back to you!

The first thing that came to my mind was whether tampons really hold as much liquid as they claim.