HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT #1 Do hurricanes establish patterns?

Due by 3 pm on Thursday, June 8

(1) Go to the following web site: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Scroll down the left-hand column. Under Hurricane History, click on Most Expensive. This pulls up a list of the 30 most expensive hurricanes, unadjusted for inflation. Look for a link to the same list, but adjusted for inflation. Click on this link.

For each hurricane, we are told the ranking, the storm name (location of impact), the year the storm occurred, the category of storm, and the dollar loss due to the storm. The category is determined by the maximum wind speed; the higher the number, the higher the wind speed.

(2) Are there patterns established by these storms? Your assignment is to manipulate the data in some way to demonstrate the pattern you think should be present. This is how scientific data are brought to the public. This does not mean that you simply graph the data as it is originally presented. You must do something to the data such as grouping it, re-ordering it, averaging it, adding it, etc. The reason for the manipulation is to better answer some question or hypothesis.

1. Please describe how and why you manipulated the data. Then present the data in a way that helps to illustrate your point. You may wish to use a table or a graph to do this.

These may be done by hand or by using a spreadsheet program such as Excel. Make sure everything is properly and clearly labeled.

2. Now comment on whether this manipulation illustrated your preliminary hypothesis. Was a strong pattern shown or was there no pattern at all? Why or why not?
3. How would this help the general US population or US policy makers?

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.