HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT #1 Do hurricanes establish patterns?

Due by 6 pm on Tuesday, September 18

(1) Tables 2 and 3a contain data from the National Hurricane Center (2007). Table 2 lists the deadliest hurricanes; Table 3a lists the costliest. Your assignment is to manipulate the data in some way to determine whether or not a pattern exists. You should choose ONLY ONE of these data sets to use. Note that “manipulate the data” does not mean simply plottting what is given. You need to reorganize the data or group it and then produce a new table or graph of some kind that attempts to determine whether the pattern you thought might exist does. You may not need to use all of the data given in the original table. Your new table or graph may be hand made if you are uncomfortable with spreadsheets. Be sure to label things.

(2) The second part of the assignment is to write this all up. In your own words, please describe how and why you manipulated the data. Did this process support your preliminary hypothesis? Was there a strong pattern? If so, describe it and why it might have occurred. If not, why not? How would this help the general US population or US policy makers? This part of the assignment should be word-processed, double spaced and done in 12-pt. font.

The homework will be graded with the rubric provided on the class web site.