1

Quartiles
1. The data below give the percentages of people living below
the poverty level in the United States, in 1989. Each value
represents a state or the District of Columbia. Find the
median percentage of state population living in poverty.
Percent of persons in poverty, 1989
6.4 6.8 7.6 8.3 8.3 8.7 8.9 9.0 9.6
9.9 10.2 10.2 10.2 10.7 10.7 10.8 10.9 11.1
11.1 11.4 11.5 11.5 11.7 11.9 11.9 12.4 12.5
12.5 12.7 13.0 13.0 13.1 13.3 13.3 14.4 14.7
15.4 15.7 15.7 15.9 16.1 16.7 16.9 18.1 18.3
19.0 19.1 19.7 20.6 23.6 25.2
2. Now suppose all of the data below the median were one
data set. (That is, look at just the lower 25 values.) Find
the median of those data. This value is the rst quartile The quartiles divide the data into
four piecesquarters.
of the data.
3. Do the same for the data above the median: Pretend those
25 were a data set by themselves and nd the median. This
is the third quartile. The median of the original 51
data value is the second
quartile. 4. Quartiles are sometimes used to give an idea about the
spread of data in a data set. A box-and-whisker plot is a
good way to show this spread visually. A box-and-whisker
plot is drawn above a number line, and it has four pieces
to itone for each quarter of the data.
The following instructions tell you how to make each part. You can actually create the parts
in any order, not just in the order
given here.
(a) The box is made of two parts. For the left part, nd
the rst quartile and the second quartile on a number
line. Make two short vertical lines, the same distance
above the number line, one for each value. The exam-
ple is a box for rst quartile 1.4 and second quartile
(median) 2.2. Create a box using the quartiles for the
Problems with a Point: January 18, 2002 c EDC 2002
Quartiles: Problem 2
1989 poverty data above the number line to the right The dotted lines are there to help
you make the box parallel to the
number line.
of the example. (Youll come back to this number line
for all the parts of this problem.)
(b) The right part of the box is made in the same way, but
using the second and third quartiles. In the example
below, the third quartile is 2.8. Finish the box you
started above.
(c) The left whisker shows where the least quarter of the
data lie. The left end of the whisker is the minimum
value in the data setfor the poverty data, you would
use the smallest of all the percentages. Draw a short
vertical line above the minimum value, then connect
that line to the line showing the rst quartile. In the
example below, the minimum value is 1. Find the min-
imum value for the poverty data, and create the left
whisker with the box you created above. The plot shows data with a
minimum of 1, rst quartile of
1.4, second quartile of 2.2, third
quartile of 2.8, and a maximum of
3.8.
(d) The right whisker (see above) shows where the greatest
quarter of the data lie. The right end is the maximum
value in the data set. On the plot youve been creating,
draw the right whisker the same way as you did the left,
but using the maximum value and the third quartile.
5. Label the box-and-whisker plot you created 1989. Then The earnings level used to dene
poverty was raised between 1989
to 1999 to account for ination.
use the following data to create a similar plot for the per-
centages in poverty in 1999, and label it 1999.
Problems with a Point: January 18, 2002 c EDC 2002
Quartiles: Problem 3
Percent of persons in poverty, 1999
7.2 7.3 8.0 8.2 8.3 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.7
8.7 8.8 8.8 9.2 9.3 9.8 10.0 10.2 10.3
10.3 10.3 10.5 10.6 10.7 10.7 10.9 10.9 11.1
11.6 11.6 12.7 12.7 12.8 12.8 13.2 13.4 13.5
13.8 13.8 14.1 14.3 14.6 14.7 14.8 15.0 15.4
16.1 16.8 16.9 18.6 19.1 20.5
6. Compare the minimums and maximums for the two years.
(a) How did the minimum change from 1989 to 1999?
(b) How did the maximum change?
(c) How did the range (the dierence between the mini-
mum and the maximum) change?
7. Now look at the quarter of the states with the lowest
percentagesfrom the minimum to the rst quartile.
(a) How did the rst quartile change from 1989 to 1999?
(b) For each year, what was the largest dierence between
states in the lower quarter of the data?
(c) Were the states with lower poverty percentages closer
in percentages to each other in 1999 or in 1989?
8. Do a similar analysis for the other three quarters: lower
middle (from rst quartile to second), upper middle (from
second quartile to third), and upper (from third quartile
to maximum).
9. The dierence between the third quartile and the rst
quarter is called the interquartile range. On the plot,
this is represented by the length of the box. Did the in-
terquartile range increase or decrease from 1989 to 1999?
How can you tell by looking at the plot?
10. Consider the two plots, and your answers to problems 6
to 9. Here are some conclusions that can be made about
how the poverty levels of the United States changed from
1989 to 1999. Explain how each conclusion can be seen
from the plots.
(a) Overall, the poverty levels seem to have decreased from
1989 to 1999, although the minimum actually increased.
(b) Theres still a wide spread, but not as wide as before.
(c) The spread of the middle half of the states is a little The middle half is the
approximately half of the data
(actually 27 values in this case)
that are in the middlevalues 13
to 39, in this case.
less for 1999.
(d) However, the biggest change was in the extremes.
Problems with a Point: January 18, 2002 c EDC 2002
Quartiles: Answers 1
Answers
1. The median percentage is 12.4.
2. 10.45
3. 15.7
4. Here is the completed box-and-whisker plot, along with
the plot for problem 5 (1999):
5. See the plot above. For 1999, the rst quartile is 9.25; the
second quartile (median) is 10.9; and the third quartile is
13.95.
6. (a) The minimum increased from 6.4 to 7.2.
(b) The maximum decreased from 25.2 to 20.5.
(c) The range decreased from 18.8 to 13.3.
7. (a) The rst quartile decreased from 10.45 to 9.25.
(b) In 1989, the largest dierence was 4.05. In 1999, the
largest dierence was 2.01.
(c) 1999
8. Lower middle: The second quartile decreased from 12.4
to 10.9. The states with lower middle poverty percentages
were slightly closer together in 1999 (all within 1.65 rather
than 1.95).
Upper middle: The third quartile decreased from 15.7 to
13.95. The states with upper middle poverty percentages
were slightly closer together in 1999 (within 3.05 rather
than 3.3).
Upper: The states with the greatest poverty percent-
ages were signicantly closer together in 1999 (within 6.55
rather than 9.5).
9. It decreased, from 5.25 to 4.7. On the plots, the box isnt
as long for 1999 than it is for 1989.
Problems with a Point: January 18, 2002 c EDC 2002
Quartiles: Answers 2
10. (a) The plot looks like it moved to left, although the min- Teachers Note: If your
students are comfortable drawing
conclusions themselves, you may
prefer to ask them to do so here,
rather than give them the printed
conclusions.
imum moved right.
(b) The plot isnt as long for 1999 as it was for 1989.
(c) The box is not quite as wide for 1999 as for 1989.
(d) The whiskers are signicantly shorter.
Problems with a Point: January 18, 2002 c EDC 2002