Lesson 1.

2 – Representing a Quantitative Variable

Name Statistic Symbol Parameter Symbol

Mean x or y μ (mu, pronounced “meeoo”)
Standard Deviation s σ (sigma)

Mean and Median

Mean: average of a data set corresponding to a quantitative variable

Formula from the AP Statistics formula chart:

which means: sum (add) the data values in the data set and divide by the total number of data points.

Median: the number that separates the data set in two equal halves (also considered the 50 th percentile or Q2)

- If you have an odd number of data points, the median will be the middle value when arranged from lowest to
highest values.
Ex. {1 2 3 4 5} à median = 3
- If you have an even number of data points, the median will be the average of the two middle values when
arranges from lowest to highest values.
Ex. { 1 2 3 4 5 6} à median = 3.5

Example:

Find the mean and the median of the following heights of a random sample of 15 students.

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

Measures of Location
Mode: the value that appears the most often in a set of data (sometimes could be considered a measure of center)
Unimodal (Symmetric) Unimodal (Skewed) Bimodal Multi-modal
 - If a distribution is unimodal and symmetric then the mean, median, and mode will all be close to each other.
- If a distribution is unimodal and skewed, the mean will be pulled in the direction of the skew (graph above: to
the right) and the median will lie between the mode and the mean.
Minimum: the smallest value of the data set
Maximum: the largest value of the data set
Percentile: a measurement indicating the value below which a given percentage of observation in the data set all.
Ex. The 20th percentile is the value in which the lowest 20 percent of the data values can be found. The 86 th percentile
means that data value is higher than 86% of the other values in the data set.
First Quartile (Q1): 25th percentile; the middle data point between the minimum and the median
Third Quartile (Q3): 75th percentile; the middle data point between the median and the maximum.

Example:

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

Mode

Minimum

Maximum

First Quartile

Third Quartile

Measures of SPREAD
 Range: the difference between the highest and the lower values in a set of data (max – min)
 Interquartile Range: Middle 50% of the data, measure of statistics dispersion being equal to the difference between the
 upper and lower quartile values. Calculated by: IQR = Q3 – Q1.
 Standard Deviation: a measure that is used to quantify the amount of variation of a set of data values – the average distance
of each data point from the average.
Formula from the AP Statistics formula chart:

Example: 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

Range

IQR

Standard
Deviation

Practice Problem:
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

Find the following measurements (calculator active), showing at least one example with an equation - where
appropriate - or work on the data.

Mean

Standard Dev.

Mode

Median

Minimum

Maximum

Range

First Quartile

Third Quartile

IQR

Example
 Mark McGwire was known for hitting a record setting number of home run in the early 2000s. The number of
homeruns 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

5-Number Summary Box Plot

N = 16, each quartile will have 4 data points
Minimum: 3
Maximum: 70
Median (average of 33 and 39): 36
Q1 (average of 22 and 29): 25.5
Q3 (average of 49 and 52): 50.5

Practice Problem
A high school math class took a pre-test on a unit before any students had learned the material. Their exam scores are
as follows. Create a box plot of the data.

23 31 25 51 22 10 10 27 16 15 12 21 27 33 22 22 36 37 38

Example
Mark McGwire was known for hitting a record setting number of home run in the early 2000s. The number of
homeruns 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

Dot Plot Stem-and-Leaf Plot

Mark McGwire Homeruns per
Season
0 3 9 9
1
2 2 9
3 2 2 2 9 9
4 2 9
5 2 8
6 5
7 0

Key: 2 2 = 22

Practice Problem
1. A high school math class took a pre-test on a unit before any students had learned the material. Their exam
scores are as follows.
 23 31 25 51 22 10 10 27 16 15 12 21 27 33 22 22 36 37 38

(a) Create a dot plot of the pre-test scores.

(b) Create a stem plot of the pre-test scores.

Main Idea
Histograms are bar graphs for quantitative data. Unlike for categorical data, however, the bars in a histogram must
be connected and must follow a number line on the x – axis. You can set the width of the bars, called the bin width,
to be anything that makes sense for your data set. Mostly, we use a bin widths in increments of 5. The y – axis of a
histogram is the frequency of data values within the bin width designated. Sometimes the frequency for the bar will
be included on top of the bar to make the histogram easier to read.

Example
Mark McGwire was known for hitting a record setting number of home run in the early 2000s. The number of
homeruns 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

Histogram Histogram
Bin Width = 10 Bin Width = 20

Practice Problem
 1. A high school math class took a pre-test on a unit before any students had learned the material. Their exam
scores are as follows. Create a histogram of the data set.

23 31 25 51 22 10 10 27 16 15 12 21 27 33 22 22 36 37 38

Check My Understanding
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology holds an annual Christmas Bird Count, in which birdwatchers at various locations
around the country see how many different species of birds they can spot. Here are some of the counts reported
from sites in Texas during the 1999 event. Create a box plot of the data.

178 186 162 206 166 163 183 181 206 177
175 167 162 160 160 157 156 153 153 152
(a) Create a stem plot of the bird counts.

(b) Create a Histogram of the bird counts.

(c) Create a Boxplot of the bird counts.