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Practice with Measures of Dispersion

Site: Saylor Academy
Course: GKT101: General Knowledge for Teachers – Math
Book: Practice with Measures of Dispersion
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Date: Friday, 18 April 2025, 6:16 PM

Description

Complete these exercises and check your answers.

Table of contents

Questions

Use the following information to answer the next nine exercises: The population parameters below describe the full-time equivalent number of students (FTES) each year at Lake Tahoe Community College from 1976–1977 through 2004–2005.

  • μ = 1000 FTES
  • median = 1,014 FTES
  • σ = 474 FTES
  • first quartile = 528.5 FTES
  • third quartile = 1,447.5 FTES
  • n = 29 years
94. The population standard deviation = _____

95. What percent of the FTES were from 528.5 to 1447.5? How do you know?

96. What is the IQR? What does the IQR represent?

97. How many standard deviations away from the mean is the median?

Additional Information: The population FTES for 2005–2006 through 2010–2011 was given in an updated report. The data are reported here.

Year 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11
Total FTES 1,585 1,690 1,735 1,935 2,021 1,890

Table 2.73

98. Calculate the mean, median, standard deviation, the first quartile, the third quartile, and the IQR. Round to one decimal place.

99. What additional information is needed to construct a box plot for the FTES for 2005-2006 through 2010-2011 and a box plot for the FTES for 1976-1977 through 2004-2005?

100. Compare the IQR for the FTES for 1976–77 through 2004–2005 with the IQR for the FTES for 2005-2006 through 2010–2011. Why do you suppose the IQRs are so different?

101. Three students were applying to the same graduate school. They came from schools with different grading systems. Which student had the best GPA when compared to other students at his school? Explain how you determined your answer.

Student GPA School Average GPA School Standard Deviation
Thuy 2.7 3.2 0.8
Vichet 87 75 20
Kamala 8.6 8 0.4

Table 2.74

102. A music school has budgeted to purchase three musical instruments. They plan to purchase a piano costing $3,000, a guitar costing $550, and a drum set costing $600. The mean cost for a piano is $4,000 with a standard deviation of $2,500. The mean cost for a guitar is $500 with a standard deviation of $200. The mean cost for drums is $700 with a standard deviation of $100. Which cost is the lowest, when compared to other instruments of the same type? Which cost is the highest when compared to other instruments of the same type. Justify your answer.

103 . An elementary school class ran one mile with a mean of 11 minutes and a standard deviation of three minutes. Rachel, a student in the class, ran one mile in eight minutes. A junior high school class ran one mile with a mean of nine minutes and a standard deviation of two minutes. Kenji, a student in the class, ran 1 mile in 8.5 minutes. A high school class ran one mile with a mean of seven minutes and a standard deviation of four minutes. Nedda, a student in the class, ran one mile in eight minutes.

  1. Why is Kenji considered a better runner than Nedda, even though Nedda ran faster than he?
  2. Who is the fastest runner with respect to his or her class? Explain why.

Source: Rice University, https://openstax.org/books/introductory-statistics/pages/2-homework
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Answers

94. 474 FTES

96. 919

98.

  • mean = 1,809.3
  • median = 1,812.5
  • standard deviation = 151.2
  • first quartile = 1,690
  • third quartile = 1,935
  • IQR = 245
100. Hint: Think about the number of years covered by each time period and what happened to higher education during those periods.

102. For pianos, the cost of the piano is 0.4 standard deviations BELOW the mean. For guitars, the cost of the guitar is 0.25 standard deviations ABOVE the mean. For drums, the cost of the drum set is 1.0 standard deviations BELOW the mean. Of the three, the drums cost the lowest in comparison to the cost of other instruments of the same type. The guitar costs the most in comparison to the cost of other instruments of the same type.