Question

While studying bacterial cells, scientists measure the lengths of the cells in one colony. The chart shows their data.



The scientists notice that one measurement stands out. How should the scientists best deal with this measurement?

accept it as true and use 85 micrometers in the data when they find the average length
accept it as true but say that it is the only cell that has ever been that long
consider that there was an error during measuring and collect further data
consider that it is possible but very unlikely for these bacterial cells to be so long

Answer 1

Consider that there was an error during measuring and collect further data.

Reason: a single outlier can be a measurement error or a rare true value. The best practice is to repeat the measurement, check methods/instrumentation, and gather more data to see whether the value recurs before including or dismissing it.