Math Acts: A Colorful Survey

Red, blue, purple, green, orange, yellow...what's your favorite color? Is there a color that you absolutely, positively cannot stand? How do your color preferences compare to those of your friends? Take this survey to find out.

Mission:

Find out what color clothes people are wearing. What is the most common color? What is the least common color? Is there a color that nobody wears? Is there a color that most everybody wears?

Before you start the project, take a guess. What do you think will be the most common color? How popular do you think your favorite color will be?

What to do:

1. There are two ways to conduct your survey. You can study people you know, like your parents, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors. Or you can study your neighborhood. If you decide to study the neighborhood, you'll need a good place to people watch. Try the library, park or even looking out your window and watching people who walk by.

2. Get a piece of paper and something to write with.

3. Decide how many people you want in your survey, 10, 20 30 -- it's up to you. Keep track of the colors people are wearing. Most people were more than one color at a time so you might want to concentrate on one article of clothing, like shirts or pants.

4. Analyze for results. What did you find? Make a chart or graph that shows the colors according to how common they are.

5. Compare the results to your original guess. Did you notice differences in the colors boys and girls wore? How about adults and children? Do you think the results would be the same if you had done the survey in the winter?