Caitlyn recorded the height of each plant after she exposed each plant to a set amount of darkness daily. The scatterplot shows her results after 2 weeks of exposing each plant to the amount of darkness.

Question

A graph titled Plant Growth has hours of darkness on the x-axis, and height of plant (inches) on the y-axis. Points are grouped closely together and decrease. Point (17, 12) is above the cluster.

Which statement about the scatterplot is true?
The point (17, 12) could cause the description of the data set to be overstated.
The point (17, 12) could cause the description of the data set to be understated.
The point (17, 12) shows that there is no relationship between the number of hours of darkness and the height of the plant.
Although (17, 12) is an extreme value, it should be part of the description of the relationship between number of hours of darkness and the height of the plant.

Answer 1

The correct statement about the scatterplot is:

The point (17, 12) could cause the description of the data set to be overstated.

This is because the point (17, 12) is above the cluster of points that typically show a downward trend in height as hours of darkness increase. Since it is an outlier, its presence might suggest that the plants can still grow well (to a height of 12 inches) even with 17 hours of darkness, which is contrary to the overall trend. Therefore, it could lead someone to overstate the positive aspects of the relationship between darkness and plant height, rather than recognizing the general trend that suggests less height with more darkness.