Chapter 2, Problem 122BITH

Suppose that a publisher conducted a survey asking adult consumers the number of fiction paperback books they had purchased in the previous month. The results are summarized in the Table 2.83.

a. Are there any outliers in the data? Use an appropriate numerical test involving the IQR to identify outliers, if any, and clearly state your conclusion.

b. If a data value is identified as an outlier, what should be done about it?

c. Are any data values further than two standard deviations away from the mean? In some situations, statisticians may use this criteria to identify data values that are unusual, compared to the other data values. (Note that this criteria is most appropriate to use for data that is mound-shaped and symmetric, rather than for skewed data.)

d. Do parts a and c of this problem give the same answer?

e. Examine the shape of the data. Which part, a or c, of this question gives a more appropriate result for this data?

f. Based on the shape of the data which is the most appropriate measure of center for this data; mean, median or

mode?