Twenty or so

Discussion

1. Would you be willing to fill out a questionaire about your personal sexual behavior? Why or why not? Would you be willing to participate in a telephone poll? Talk with an interviewer in person?

2. The headline in today's New York Times proclaims, `Sex Survey of American Men Finds 1%Are Gay'. Can this headline be correct?

3. Read the Times article. What is your best estimate for the fraction of American men who are gay?

4. The article states, `In a Government-sponsored survey of 20,055 people aged 18 to 69 in France in 1991 and 1992, French men reported an average of 11 sexual partners; French women reported an average of 3, the Guttmacher institute said.' Explain how French men could average 11 sex partners, while French women average only 3.

5. The table accompanying the article shows the median number of sex partners reported to be 7.3. What does this mean?

6. The table breaks the median number of `sex partners ever' down as follows: `cohabiting' 11.9; `has regular partner' 9.9; `no regular partner' 8.2. How is it possible that the medians for the three subgroups are all higher than the overall median of 7.3?

Assignments

Journal

Read this week's current CHANCE news.

A recent article in the New York Times reports that people think doctors make too much money, despite the fact that the amount of money that they think doctors make is only about half of what doctors actually make. Find this article in the `Fair Use' folder on the CHANCE gopher. Read it, and comment.

Homework due Thursday 22 April

Read Chapters 5 and 6 of FPPA, and do the following review exercises: 1,2,4,5,7,11 of Chapter 5; 3,4,14 of Chapter 6.