1. M&Ms currently come in seven colors: purple, orange, brown, green, blue, red, and yellow.

  2. Which color was the most recent addition? __________

  3. Guess which color occurs the most often. __________

  4. Guess which color occurs the least often. __________

  5. Guess how many M&Ms are in your package. __________

  6. Now open your pack of M%Ms (but do not eat any yet!).

  7. Make a line plot of the number of M&Ms of each color in your pack on the axes below:

  8.    

       

       

  9. Record the number for each color and the total M&Ms below:

    • Purple _______________

    • Brown _______________

    • Green _______________

    • Orange _______________

    • Blue _______________

    • Yellow _______________

    • Red _______________

    • Total _______________

  10. Is your total the same as your neighbor's? _______________

    Why do you think that is? _______________

  11. Which color occurs the most often? _______________

  12. Which color occurs the least often? _______________

  13. Now do a line plot (or frequency distribution) to determine the class totals for Total M&Ms, Number of Browns, Number of Greens, and so forth.

    Total Number of M&Ms
    # in Pack Frequency
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
    Number of Purple M&Ms
    # in Pack Frequency
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           

    Number of Brown M&Ms
    # in Pack Frequency
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
    Number of Green M&Ms
    # in Pack Frequency
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           

    Number of Orange M&Ms
    # in Pack Frequency
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
    Number of Blue M&Ms
    # in Pack Frequency
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           

    Number of Yellow M&Ms
    # in Pack Frequency
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
    Number of Red M&Ms
    # in Pack Frequency
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
           

  14. Now make a Box Plot (Box and Whiskers diagram) for the total number of M&Ms in eack pack.

  15. Now record class totals, and determine the percentage that each color comprises of all the packages sampled:

    Color Total % % (Mars Co.)
    Purple            
    Brown            
    Green          
    Orange          
    Blue          
    Yellow          
    Red          
    Totals       100% 100%

Click here to see the color distribution of M&Ms over the years.

Click on the following to read the actual letters to and from the Mars Company about the color distribution:

Letter from Mars -- 1982

My Letter to Mars -- 1995

Letter from Mars -- 1996