Question

Katrina recorded the number of bouquets made by each student volunteer for a school dance in the dot plot.



Which measure of variability would best describe this distribution?
A.
mean
B.
median
C.
range
D.
interquartile range

Answer 1

To determine which measure of variability would best describe the distribution of bouquets made by each student volunteer, we need to consider the characteristics of the data.

The **range** (C) gives the difference between the maximum and minimum values in the data set and can provide a quick sense of the spread.

The **interquartile range** (IQR) (D), on the other hand, measures the range of the middle 50% of the data, which is useful for understanding variability in cases where there are outliers or skewed data.

The **mean** (A) and **median** (B) are measures of central tendency, not variability.

If the dot plot shows skewness or outliers, the IQR (D) would be the most informative measure of variability as it focuses on the central portion of the data while minimizing the impact of extreme values.

In summary, if the data is expected to have outliers or is not symmetrically distributed, the best choice for describing variability would be:

**D. interquartile range**.