Mastering the Mean
To find the mean of a set of numbers, you first add all the data points together. What is the very next mathematical step you must take?
What is dividing?
Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) is used to measure which feature of a data set?
What is the variability (spread)?
To calculate the Interquartile Range, you find the difference between two specific values: the Upper Quartile Q3 and this Lower Quartile. What is its symbol?
What is Q1?
On a standard dot plot, what does each individual dot or "X" sitting above the number line represent?
What is one piece of data?
A box plot is structured around a specific summary of data that consists of the minimum, Q1, median, Q3, and maximum. What is the name of this set of numbers?
What is the 5 number summary?
This is the common, everyday seven-letter word that people usually use when they are actually talking about the mathematical "mean."
In the term Mean Absolute Deviation, what does the middle word, "Absolute," tell you to do with any negative distances you calculate?
What is make them positive?
When you look at a box-and-whisker plot, the Interquartile Range represents the exact length of which specific part of the graph?
What is the box?
When analyzing the shape of a dot plot, what do we call a data point that sits far away from the main cluster of all the other dots?
What is an outlier?
When looking at a box plot, what statistical measure of center is represented by the single vertical line drawn (roughly) straight through the middle of the box?
What is the median?
Calculate the mean of this small data set representing hours of sleep: 6, 7, 7, 8, 12.
What is 8?
If a set of test scores has a MAD of 0.5, what does that tell you about how the students scored compared to a set of scores with a MAD of 5.2?
What is the scores are much closer together (clustered)?
What exact percentage of a total data set's points always sit directly inside the Interquartile Range?
What is 50%?
If a dot plot has its tallest stack of dots sitting directly above the number 7, which statistical measure of center is automatically equal to 7?
What is the mode?
What percentage of the entire data set is represented by the data trailing out into just one of the two "whiskers" on a box plot?
What is 25%?
If a data set contains an "outlier"—a number that is vastly higher or lower than all the rest—what happens to the mean?
What is it gets pulled towards the outlier?
Calculate the MAD for this tiny data set of daily temperatures, where the mean is already exactly 70 degrees: 66, 70, 74.
What is 2.67?
Calculate the IQR for a data set where the minimum is 5, the median is 12, the maximum is 25, Q1 is 9, and Q3 is 18.
What is 9?
A dot plot has exactly 15 total dots spread across its number line. To find the median of this data set, which dot would you look for if you counted them in order from left to right?
What is the 8th dot?
If a box plot's left whisker starts at 10, the box goes from 20 to 35, and the right whisker ends at 50, what is the range of the entire data set?
What is 40?
Maya has taken four quizzes and has a mean score of exactly 80. If she wants her mean score to go up to an 82 after her fifth quiz, what score does she need to get on that fifth quiz?
What is 90?
A data set features the numbers 10, 20, 30, and 40, giving it a mean of 25. What is the Mean Absolute Deviation of this data set?
What is 10?
Find the IQR of this data set representing a student's daily step count (in thousands):
2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12.
What is 5.5?
Look at this mental picture of a dot plot: There is 1 dot above the number 2, 2 dots above 3, and 1 dot above 4. What is the mean of this data set?
What is 3?
Imagine a box plot where the line for the median is sitting much closer to the left side of the box (Q1) than the right side (Q3). What does this tell you about the distribution of the middle 50% of the data?
What is the lower half of the middle of the data is packed closely together while the upper half is more spread out?