Exercises for Class 3: Data Variability

Problem 3.21
The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index the United Nation uses to give a summary
rating for each nation based on life expectancy at birth, educational attainment, and income.
In 2006, the ten nations (in order) with the highest HDI rating, followed in parentheses by the
percentage of seats in their parliament held by women (which is a measure of gender empow-
erment) were Norway (38), Iceland (33), Australia (28) Ireland (14), Sweden (45) Canada (24,
Japan(11) United States (15) Switezerland (25), Netherlands (34).

ii) Find the standard deviation and interpret.

Problem 3.24
Excluding the U.S., the national mean number of holiday and vacation days in a year for
OECD nations is approximately bell shaped with a mean of 35 days and standard deviation
of 3 days

(a) Use the empirical rule to describe the variability

(b) The observation for the U.S. is 19. If this is included with the other observations, will
the (i) mean increase or decrease, (ii) standard deviation increase or decrease?
(c) Using the mean and the standard deviation for the other countries, how many standard
deviations is the U.S. observation from the mean?

Problem 3.27
Grade point averages of graduating seniors at the University of Rochester must fall between
2.0 and 4.0. Consider the possible standard deviation values: -10.0, 0.0, 0.4, 1.5, 6.0.
(a) Which is the most realistic value?
(b) Which value/s is/are impossibile? Why?