Lesson 1.

3 – Summary Stats & Small Data Graphs

Model Problem
A random sample of scores from the last exam are given below.
80 92 77 85 83 76 82 77 76 76 76 79 96 93 77 74 71 76 71 71 82 71 90 67 79 79 83

1. Are there any outliers in this data set? Justify your answer.

2. Sketch a box plot of this data set.

3. If the score of a 96 was transferred to this problem incorrectly, and the student actually scored an 86 on the
exam, describe the effect of changing the score of a 96 to the corrected score of 86 would have on the following
summary statistics:
i. Mean

ii. Median

iii. Range

iv. Standard Deviation

v. Interquartile Range

Check My Understanding
A local retail business is running a promotion where they give every customer a coupon for their next visit in hopes
that the customer will return and then spend even more money on their next visit since they have a coupon. The
company tracks these customers and when a customer returns with the previously acquired coupon they record how
much they spent on their first visit and how much they spent on their second visit. The manager then calculated the
difference in money spent between the two visits, second visit minus the first visit, for each of these customers.
Selected information about the distribution of these differences are given in the table below.

Lowest 3 Q1 Med Q3 Highest 3 Mean Std Dev

-9, -5, -3 2 6 8 10, 12, 15 4.5 3.15

(a) Can any of these differences be considered outliers for this distribution? Justify your answer.

(b) Sketch a boxplot of the distribution of the differences.

Extension Problem
A random survey is conducted in a college intro stats class during the fall 2003 semester. It asked students about the
number of credit hours they were taking that quarter, and then the researchers placed the number of credit hours in
order from least to greatest. The results are as follows:

10 10 12 14 15 15 15 X 17 17 19 20 20 20 20 22

Which of the following is a true statement?

I. The median is 16 credit hours.

II. The mode for the credit hours could only be 20.
III. The credit hours data has an IQR of 5.5.

Describing Distributions of Quantitative Data

C
 U
S
S
The SHAPE of a Distribution
Symmetric Symmetric
Skewed Right Skewed Left Uniform
(unimodal) (not unimodal)

Check My Understanding
1. Match each distribution to its correct description.
_____ Right skewed C D
A B
_____ Left skewed
_____ Uniform
_____ Bimodal

2. Match each distribution with its description.

A. B. C.

________ Slight right skew, center at approximately 2, spread of 10

________ Center at 5, symmetric, unimodal, spread of 10
________ Center at approximately 1, extreme right skew, spread of 10

Model Problem
Find the following statistics for the heights of a random sample of 15 students.

69 61 76 63 63 62 61 68 65 67 63 72 69 68 67

(a) Sketch a boxplot and a histogram of the distribution of heights for this random sample of 15 students.

(b) Describe the distributions of heights for this random sample of 15 students.
 (c) What is the value of the mean height for this sample? How does this compare to the median?

(d) If the largest height was 73 instead of 76, which measures would change and why?

Check My Understanding
Mark McGwire was known for hitting a record setting number of home run in the early 2000s. The number of
homerun he hit during each season of his career are listed below.

3 9 9 22 29 32 32 33 39 39 42 49 52 58 65 70

How would you describe the distribution of homeruns Mark McGwire hit during each season of his career in a few
sentences?

Practice Problems
1. A random sample of 24 students had their heights measured and recorded. Their data is included below.

59 60 60 60 61 62 62 63 64 64 64 64 65 66 66 67 68 68 68 69 70 70 70 70
(a) How would you describe the distribution of heights in a few sentences?

(b) Mrs. Hunt made a mistake when recording the data. The tallest student in the sample was actually 79 inches
tall. Discuss which measures would be affected when the correction to the data is made.