1 The data below (data set fancy) concern the monthly sales figures of a shop which opened in January 1987 and sells gifts, souvenirs, and novelties. The shop is situated on the wharf at a beach resort town in Queensland, Australia. The sales volume varies with the seasonal population of tourists. There is a large influx of visitors to the town at Christmas and for the local surfing festival, held every March since 1988. Over time, the shop has expanded its premises, range of products, and staff.
## Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
## 1987 1664.81 2397.53 2840.71 3547.29 3752.96 3714.74 4349.61
## 1988 2499.81 5198.24 7225.14 4806.03 5900.88 4951.34 6179.12
## 1989 4717.02 5702.63 9957.58 5304.78 6492.43 6630.80 7349.62
## 1990 5921.10 5814.58 12421.25 6369.77 7609.12 7224.75 8121.22
## 1991 4826.64 6470.23 9638.77 8821.17 8722.37 10209.48 11276.55
## 1992 7615.03 9849.69 14558.40 11587.33 9332.56 13082.09 16732.78
## 1993 10243.24 11266.88 21826.84 17357.33 15997.79 18601.53 26155.15
## Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
## 1987 3566.34 5021.82 6423.48 7600.60 19756.21
## 1988 4752.15 5496.43 5835.10 12600.08 28541.72
## 1989 8176.62 8573.17 9690.50 15151.84 34061.01
## 1990 7979.25 8093.06 8476.70 17914.66 30114.41
## 1991 12552.22 11637.39 13606.89 21822.11 45060.69
## 1992 19888.61 23933.38 25391.35 36024.80 80721.71
## 1993 28586.52 30505.41 30821.33 46634.38 104660.67
5.1a Produce a time plot of the data and describe the patterns in the graph. Identify any unusual or unexpected fluctuations in the time series.
plot(fancy)
As identified from the above information, there is a surge in monthly sales every March and December.
After a visual inspection of the plot, there seems to be a gradual growth in the spike in sales during these peak months with the exception of 1991. Overall, excluding the peeks, there is a growth trend.
It should also be noted that Australia in December is their spring season with January, February and March being their summer months.
The 1991 fluctuation is interesting – from the plot, there doesn’t seem to be any March surge. Was the surfing festival held in March of 1991?
5.1b Explain why it is necessary to take logarithms of these data before fitting a model.
