Engineers and swing dancing

1. Engineers and swing dancing Clayton 8/19/2014

2. The Question: Are Engineers attracted to Swing Dancing?

3. Why this question? • It seems like almost everybody at a swing dance is an engineer • Is this because I live in Boston?

4. My Hypothesis • I believe the percentage of engineers at a swing dance is significantly greater than the percentage engineers in the general populace

5. The Variables • Whether or not a person is an engineer • Whether or not a person is a swing dancer

6. Population • The population surveyed is active lindy hoppers in the Boston area • Data for the general population is provided utilizing online sources

7. Data Collection • Lindy hop data • Data collected over one week at the three major swing dances in the area • Most of the dancers at each dance were surveyed • The survey asked for information about where the participant lived, what they did for work, as well as some other questions related to years dancing, education, and gender • Population of the area data • Data collected using a Census search tool that can be found at http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml • Based off 2012 census data

8. Possible Bias • Not everybody was surveyed at the dances • I only was able to survey people at the dances, missing people who were not there that week • Only one type of swing dance was covered • Census data was from 2012 (the most current available)

9. Organizing the Data • The survey initially yielded 230 data points, but the places where the candidates lived were all over the place. • I chose to work with the top seven locations of participants: Arlington, Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Medford, Newton, and Somerville. • This narrowed my data points down to 135, and made it possible for me to gather necessary data from the US census website.

10. Testing the Hypothesis • The null Hypothesis (H0) is that the outcomes of the sample group (the swing dancers) will be relative to that of the general population (census statistics) • The alternative Hypothesis (HA) is that the outcomes of the sample group (the swing dancers) will be significantly different from that of the general population (census statistics) • A Goodness-of-fit Chi-square test will be used to analyze the data • The level of significance will be: alpha = 0.5%

11. Initial Analysis – Bar Graph

12. The p-value is less 0.05%, therefore we can reject H0 and accept HA Goodness-of-fit Chi-Square Test

13. Results • Based on the bar graph, we can see that the percentage of engineers at a swing dance is far greater than the percentage of engineers in the general population of the cities used in this test. • Combined with the significant results from the Goodness-of-Fit Chi-Square test, we can say that my hypothesis is correct: The percentage of engineers at a swing dance is significantly greater than the percentage engineers in the general populace!

14. Reflection • Positive experiences • Discovering an alternate test for my analysis was a huge relief • The conversations I was able to have with curious participants were wonderful. Most of them are very curious to learn about my results • Negative experiences • Realizing that the chi-square test for independent variables did not apply! • Parsing the census data • Surprises! • Additional data provided very interesting information: like19/20 of the engineers in my sample were male • Most of the engineers only have a bachelors, yet I assume they make twice as much as me

15. Moving Forward • I wish I could conduct this study in multiple cities to find out if the results are similar. • Now I know there is a statistical significance in the amount of engineers, but that does not explain why. • I think a proper study would also cover the other forms of swing dance. • I am definitely going to analyze the data for other results as well that will be useful to the swing scene (How many newcomers in a week? How educated are swing dancers? What is the average amount of time a person has been a swing dancer?)