Question

The table contains data on the cost of attending a play at 10 different theaters in the United States. Find the interquartile range for this data set. Explain what the interquartile range represents for this data set.
Cost of Attending a Play
Theater
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Cost​ ($)
60
63
43
45
30
51
62
40
38
41
Question content area bottom
Part 1
The interquartile range is
  
20.
Part 2
Explain what the interquartile range represents for this data set. Choose the correct answer below.
A.
The middle​ 50% of prices range from ​$40 to ​$60.
B.
The bottom​ 50% of prices range from ​$44 to ​$63.
C.
The top​ 25% of prices range from ​$30 to ​$40.
D.
The top​ 50% of prices range from ​$30 to ​$44.

Answers

GPT-4o mini
To find the interquartile range (IQR) of the given data set on the cost of attending a play, we need to first organize the data in ascending order:

The sorted costs are:
- 30
- 38
- 40
- 41
- 43
- 45
- 51
- 60
- 62
- 63

Next, we determine the first quartile (Q1) and the third quartile (Q3):

1. **Finding Q1 (the median of the first half of the data)**:
- The first half of the data (lower half): 30, 38, 40, 41, 43
- The median of this group (Q1) is 40.

2. **Finding Q3 (the median of the second half of the data)**:
- The second half of the data (upper half): 45, 51, 60, 62, 63
- The median of this group (Q3) is 60.

3. **Calculating the IQR**:
- IQR = Q3 - Q1 = 60 - 40 = 20.

The interquartile range is thus 20, which means the middle 50% of the data falls within this range.

**Part 2 Explanation**:
The correct interpretation of the interquartile range (IQR) is:

**A. The middle 50% of prices range from $40 to $60.**

This means that the costs of attending a play for the middle 50% of observations (those between the first and third quartiles) are between $40 and $60.