Five Number Summary and Measures of Spread
Five Number Summary
- Definition: A list of five key statistics that summarize a set of data. These values divide the data into four equal sections called quartiles.
- Components:
- X_{min}: Minimum value
- Q_1: Lower Quartile
- Q_2: Median
- Q_3: Upper Quartile
- X_{max}: Maximum value
Example: Finding the Five Number Summary
- Data set: 3, 2, 8, 6, 1, 5, 3, 7, 6
- List the data in ascending order: 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8
- Find the median (Q2): Median = 5
- Find Q1 (the median of the lower section):
- Lower section: 1, 2, 3, 3
- Q_1 = (2 + 3) / 2 = 2.5
- Find Q3 (the median of the upper section):
- Upper section: 6, 6, 7, 8
- Q_3 = (6 + 7) / 2 = 6.5
Measures of Spread
- Definition: Measures of spread describe how far data values are spread out from the center or from each other.
Minimum and Maximum Values
- Minimum Value: X_{min} = 1
- Maximum Value: X_{max} = 8
Range
- Definition: The range is a measure of how spread out a data set is.
- Formula: Range = X{max} - X{min}
Interquartile Range (IQR)
- Definition: The IQR measures the spread of the middle 50% of the data.
- Advantage: It is not affected by outliers, making it a more reliable measure of spread.
- Formula: IQR = Q3 - Q1
Example: Finding the Range and IQR
- Data set: 2.1, 3.5, 3.9, 4.0, 4.7, 4.8, 5.2
- Five Number Summary:
- X_{min} = 2.1
- Q_1 = 3.5
- Median = 4.0
- Q_3 = 4.8
- X_{max} = 5.2
- Range Calculation:
- Range = X{max} - X{min} = 5.2 - 2.1 = 3.1
- IQR Calculation:
- IQR = Q3 - Q1 = 4.8 - 3.5 = 1.3
Stem and Leaf Plot Example
- Key: 2 | 3 = 23
- Plot:
- 0 | 9
- 1 | 0 1 1 2 4 5 8 9
- 2 | 1 3 3 3 7 9
- 3 | 0 0 1 2 2