Which measure of variability—range or IQR—best describes the spread of the dataset?

Question

For a statistics assignment, Shayna randomly surveyed students on how many hours per week they spend playing online games:

1.0 2.0 2.0 7.5 10.0 10.0 10.0 10.0 11.5 17.0 17.0 18.0

Answer 1

In this case, the IQR (Interquartile Range) is a better measure of variability to describe the spread of the dataset. The IQR is less sensitive to extreme values and outliers compared to the range. It provides a measure of the dispersion that captures the spread of the middle 50% of the data, which is often more representative of the overall spread.