M & M s


  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. Why do you think that is? _______________

  9. Which color occurs the most often? _______________

  10. Which color occurs the least often? _______________

  11. 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
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       

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

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


Send any comments or questions to: David Pleacher