Chapter 3, Problem 80CRE

Marathon Times The following histogram of marathon times includes data for men and women and also for both an Olympic marathon and an amateur marathon. Greater values indicate slower runners. (Sources: www.forestcityroadraces.com and www.runnersworld.com)

a. Describe the shape of the distribution.

b. What are two different possible reasons for the two modes?

c. Knowing that there are usually fewer women who run marathons than men and that more people ran in the amateur marathon than in the Olympic marathon, look at the size of the mounds and try to decide which of the reasons stated in part b is likely to cause this. Explain.