Test Bank Chapter 4

Question 1
Which of the following statements is likely to be true?
Select one:
a. The median personal income of California taxpayers would probably be near the mean.
b. The interquartile range offers a measure of income inequality among California

residents. 
c. For personal incomes in California, outliers in either tail would be equally likely.
d. For income, the sum of squared deviations about the mean is negative about half the time.
Question 2
If the mean and median of a population are the same, then its distribution is
Select one:

a. symmetric. 
b. uniform.
c. normal.
d. skewed.
Question 3
The following frequency distribution shows the amount earned yesterday by employees of a
large Las Vegas casino. Estimate the mean daily earnings.

   
Select one:
a. $125.01
b. $112.50
c. $105.47

d. $117.13 
Question 4
The twenty-fifth percentile for waiting time in a doctor's office is 10 minutes. The seventy-fifth
percentile is 30 minutes. Which is incorrect regarding the fences?
Select one:
a. The upper inner fence is 60 minutes.
b. The upper outer fence is 90 minutes.
c. A waiting time of 45 minutes would be an outlier. 
d. The lower fences are not relevant in this problem.
Question 5
Given a sample of three items (X = 4, 6, 5) which statement is incorrect?
Select one:
a. The quartiles are useless.

b. The geometric mean is 5.2. 

c. The standard deviation is 1.
d. The coefficient of variation is 20 percent.
Question 6
In a sample of 10,000 observations from a normal population, how many would you expect to lie
beyond three standard deviations of the mean?
Select one:

a. About 27. 
b. About 100.
c. About 127.
d. None of them.
Question 7
Which is not a measure of dispersion?
Select one:
a. Standard deviation.
b. Mean absolute deviation (MAD).

c. Midhinge. 
d. Interquartile range.
Question 8
Which is a correct statement concerning the median?
Select one:
a. The median is an observed data value in any data set.
b. The median is halfway between Q1 and Q3 on a boxplot.

c. In a left-skewed distribution, we expect that the median will exceed the mean. 
d. The sum of the deviations around the median is zero.
Question 9
Find the sample correlation coefficient for the following data.

   
Select one:
a. .8911
b. .9132

c. .9556 
d. .9822
Question 10
Which is not a measure of dispersion?
Select one:
a. Mean absolute deviation (MAD).
b. Coefficient of variation.

c. Trimmed mean. 
d. Range.
Question 11
A sample of 50 breakfast customers of MacDonald's showed the spending below. Which
statement is least likely to be correct?

   
Select one:
a. About 75 percent of the customers spend less than $7.
b. About half the customers spend less than $5.

c. The mean is a reasonable measure of central tendency. 

d. The median is very close to the midhinge.
Question 12
Chebychev's Theorem
Select one:
a. is based on Sturges' Rule for data classification.

b. applies to all samples. 

c. gives a narrower range of predictions than the Empirical Rule.
d. applies only to samples from a normal population.
Question 13
Which is not true of an outlier?
Select one:
a. It is likely to be from a different population.
b. It is best discarded to get a better mean.

c. It is an anomaly that may tell the researcher something. 

d. It is suggestive of an error in recording the data.
Question 14
Craig operates a part-time snow-plowing business using a 2002 GMC 2500 HD extended cab
short box truck. This boxplot of Craig's MPG on 195 tanks of gas does not support which
statement?

   
Select one:
a. There are several outliers.
b. Most MPG values are concentrated in a narrow range.
c. The interquartile range is less than 2 MPG.

d. This is a very right-skewed distribution. 

Question 15
Three randomly chosen California students were asked how many times they drove to Mexico
last year. Their replies were 4, 5, 6. The geometric mean is
Select one:

a. 4.93. 
b. 5.42.
c. 3.87.
d. 5.00.
Question 16
Which is not true of the Empirical Rule?
Select one:

a. It applies to any distribution. 

b. It assumes that the distribution of data follows a bell shaped, normal curve.
c. It predicts more observations within μ ± kσ than Chebyshev's Theorem.
d. It can be applied to fewer distributions than Chebyshev's theorem.
Question 17
Descriptive statistics does not seek to perform which task?
Select one:
a. Clarifying the shape of the data set.

b. Inferring the values of population parameters. 

c. Summarizing the degree of dispersion in the data set.
d. Characterizing the "typical" or "middle" values of a data set.
Question 18
The following table is the frequency distribution of parking fees for a day:

    
The mean parking fee is
Select one:
a. $7.25
b. $6.95

c. $7.07 
d. $7.00
Question 19
Which continuous variable is least likely to be skewed to the right by high values?
Select one:
a. Weekend gambling losses of n customers at a major casino.
b. Annual incomes of n passengers on a flight from New York to London.

c. Cost of a plain MacDonald's hamburger in n U.S. cities. 

d. Accident damage losses by n renters of an auto rental company.
Question 20
Which Excel function would be most useful to calculate z = (x-μ)/σ for a column of data?
Select one:
a. = NORMDIST

b. = STANDARDIZE 
c. = AVERAGE
d. = STDEVP
Question 21
Which is true of skewness?

a. In business data, positive skewness is unusual.

b. In a negatively skewed distribution, the mean is likely to exceed the median.

c. The expected range of Excel's skewness coefficient increases as n increases.

Skewness often is evidenced by one or more outliers. 

Question 22
Twelve randomly-chosen students were asked how many times they had missed class during a
certain semester, with this result: 3, 2, 1, 2, 1, 5, 9, 1, 2, 3, 3, 10. The geometric mean is:
Select one:

a. 

b. 2.604 

c. 1.517

d. 
Question 23
Which of the following statements is likely to be true?
Select one:

a. For personal incomes in California, outliers in either tail would be equally likely.

b. For income, the sum of squared deviations about the mean is negative about half the time.

c. The interquartile range offers a measure of income inequality among California

residents. 

d. The median personal income of California taxpayers would probably be near the mean.
Question 24
As a measure of dispersion, compared to the range, an advantage of the standard deviation is
Select one:

a. being calculated easily through the use of a formula.

b. considering only the data values in the middle of the data array.

c. describing the distance between the highest and lowest values.

d. considering all data values. 

Question 25
Three randomly chosen California students were asked how many times they drove to Mexico
last year. Their replies were 4, 5, 6. The geometric mean is
Select one:

a. 4.93. 

b. 3.87.

c. 5.00.

d. 5.42.
Question 26
Which two statistics offer robust measures of central tendency when outliers are present?
Select one:

a. Variance and standard deviation.

b. Median and trimmed mean. 

c. Midrange and geometric mean.

d. Mean and mode.

Question 27
The position of the median is
Select one:

a. n/2 if n is even.

b. n/2 if n is odd.

c. n/2 in any sample.

d. (n + 1)/2 in any sample. 

Question 28
Which is not a characteristic of the geometric mean as a measure of central tendency?
Select one:

a. It mitigates the effects of large data values.

b. It cannot be calculated when the data contain negative or zero values.

c. It is similar to the mean if the data are skewed right. 

d. It is useful in business data to calculate average growth rates.

Question 29
Which is true of the kurtosis of a distribution?
Select one:

a. It is risky to assess kurtosis if the sample size is less than 50. 

b. The expected range of the kurtosis coefficient increases as n increases.

c. A distribution that is flatter than a normal distribution (i.e., thicker tails) is mesokurtic.

d. A distribution that is more peaked than a normal distribution (i.e., thinner tails) is platykurtic.
Question 30
Which continuous variable is least likely to be skewed to the right by high values?
Select one:

a. Accident damage losses by n renters of an auto rental company.

b. Cost of a plain MacDonald's hamburger in n U.S. cities. 

c. Annual incomes of n passengers on a flight from New York to London.

d. Weekend gambling losses of n customers at a major casino.
Question 31
If Q1 = 150 and Q3 = 250, the upper fences (inner and outer) are:
Select one:

a. 450 and 600.

b. 350 and 450.

c. 400 and 550. 

d. impossible to determine without more information.

Question 32
Which of the following is not a valid description of an outlier?
Select one:

a. A data value that is very unusual.

b. A data value that lies below Q1 or above Q3. 

c. A data value beyond the outer fences.

d. A data value several standard deviations from the mean.

Question 33
Which statement is false? Explain.
Select one:

a. If μ = 640 and σ = 128 then the coefficient of variation is 20 percent.

b. If μ = 52 and σ = 15, then X = 81 would be an outlier. 

c. If the data are from a normal population, about 68% of the values will be within μ ± σ.
Question 34
Estimate the mean exam score for the 50 students in Prof. Axolotl's class.

   
Select one:

a. 64.1

b. 59.2

c. 63.5

d. 62.0 
Question 35
Which is not an advantage of the method of medians to find Q1 and Q3?
Select one:

a. Same method as Excel's = QUARTILE function. 

b. Ease of interpolating quartile positions.

c. Intuitive definitions without complex formulas.

d. Ease of application in small data sets.

Question 36
Which is a weakness of the mode?
Select one:

a. It does not apply to qualitative data.

b. It is inappropriate for continuous data. 

c. It is usually about the same as the median.

d. It is hard to calculate when n is small.

Question 37
The twenty-fifth percentile for waiting time in a doctor's office is 19 minutes. The seventy-fifth
percentile is 31 minutes. The interquartile range is
Select one:

a. 16 minutes.
b. 22 minutes.

c. 12 minutes. 

d. impossible to determine without knowing n.

Question 38
John scored 85 on Prof. Hardtack's exam (Q1 = 40 and Q3 = 60). Based on the fences, which is
correct?
Select one:

a. John is neither unusual nor an outlier. 

b. John is in the 85th percentile.

c. John is an outlier.

d. John is unusual but not an outlier.

Question 39
Descriptive statistics does not seek to perform which task?
Select one:

a. Inferring the values of population parameters. 

b. Clarifying the shape of the data set.

c. Summarizing the degree of dispersion in the data set.

d. Characterizing the "typical" or "middle" values of a data set.

Question 40
Which is a characteristic of the mean as a measure of central tendency?
Select one:

a. It utilizes all the information in a sample. 

b. Deviations do not sum to zero when there are extreme values.
c. It is usually equal to the median in business data.
d. It is less reliable than the mode when the data are continuous.
Question 41
The position of the median is
Select one:
a. n/2 if n is odd.

b. (n + 1)/2 in any sample. 

c. n/2 if n is even.
d. n/2 in any sample.
Question 42
The median of 600, 800, 1000, 1200 is
Select one:

a. 900. 
b. 1000.
c. 950.
d. 800.
Question 43
Which Excel function would be least useful to calculate the quartiles for a column of data?
Select one:

a. = PERCENTILE 
b. = RANK
c. = QUARTILE
d. = STANDARDIZE
Question 44
As a measure of dispersion, compared to the range, an advantage of the standard deviation is
Select one:

a. considering all data values. 

b. describing the distance between the highest and lowest values.
c. considering only the data values in the middle of the data array.
d. being calculated easily through the use of a formula.
Question 45
Exam scores in a small class were 10, 10, 20, 20, 40, 60, 80, 80, 90, 100, 100. For this data set,
which statement is incorrect concerning central tendency?
Select one:
a. The 5% trimmed mean would be awkward.
b. The mode is not helpful.
c. The median is 60.00.

d. The geometric mean is 35.05. 

Question 46
A smooth distribution with one mode is negatively skewed (skewed to the left). The median of
the distribution is $65. Which of the following is a reasonable value for the distribution mean?
Select one:
a. $81
b. $76

c. $54 
d. $65
Question 47
The mode is least appropriate for
Select one:

a. continuous data. 
b. discrete data.
c. categorical data.
d. Lickert scale data.
Question 48
Twelve randomly-chosen students were asked how many times they had missed class during a
certain semester, with this result: 2, 1, 5, 1, 1, 3, 4, 3, 1, 1, 5, 18. For this sample, the geometric
mean is
Select one:
a. 3.017
b. 2.158

c. 2.376 
d. 1.545
Question 49
Variables X and Y have the strongest correlation in which scatter plot?

   
Select one:
a. Figure A.
b. Figure B.

c. They are the same. 

Question 50
Estimating the mean from grouped data will tend to be most accurate when
Select one:
a. there are few classes with wide class limits.
b. the sample is not very large and bins are wide.
c. the standard deviation is large relative to the mean.

d. observations are distributed uniformly within classes. 

Question 51
A sample of 50 breakfast customers of MacDonald's showed the spending below. Which
statement is least likely to be correct?

   
Select one:
a. About half the customers spend less than $5.
b. The mean is a reasonable measure of central tendency.

c. The median is very close to the midhinge. 

d. About 75 percent of the customers spend less than $7.
Question 52
The twenty-fifth percentile for waiting time in a doctor's office is 19 minutes. The seventy-fifth
percentile is 31 minutes. The interquartile range is
Select one:
a. 22 minutes.
b. 16 minutes.

c. 12 minutes. 
d. impossible to determine without knowing n.
Question 53
Which of the following statements is likely to be true?
Select one:
a. For income, the sum of squared deviations about the mean is negative about half the time.
b. For personal incomes in California, outliers in either tail would be equally likely.
c. The interquartile range offers a measure of income inequality among California

residents. 
d. The median personal income of California taxpayers would probably be near the mean.
Question 54
Which is a correct statement concerning the median?
Select one:
a. The median is halfway between Q1 and Q3 on a boxplot.
b. The sum of the deviations around the median is zero.

c. In a left-skewed distribution, we expect that the median will exceed the mean. 
d. The median is an observed data value in any data set.
Question 55
Three randomly-chosen Colorado students were asked how many times they went rock climbing
last month. Their replies were 5, 6, 7. The coefficient of variation is
Select one:
a. 13.6%

b. 16.7% 
c. 20.0%
d. 35.7%
Question 56
The sum of the deviations around the mean is
Select one:

a. always zero. 
b. dependent on the sample size.
c. smaller when the units are smaller (e.g., milligrams versus kilograms).
d. greater than zero if data are right-skewed.
Question 57
Three randomly chosen California students were asked how many times they drove to Mexico
last year. Their replies were 4, 5, 6. The geometric mean is
Select one:

a. 4.93. 
b. 3.87.
c. 5.42.
d. 5.00.
Question 58
Question text
Which is a characteristic of the trimmed mean as a measure of central tendency?
Select one:
a. It is basically the same as the midrange.

b. It is similar to the mean if there are offsetting high and low extremes. 
c. It does not require sorting the sample.
d. It is especially helpful in a small sample.
Question 59
Which is true of skewness?
Select one:
a. In a negatively skewed distribution, the mean is likely to exceed the median.
b. In business data, positive skewness is unusual.

c. Skewness often is evidenced by one or more outliers. 

d. The expected range of Excel's skewness coefficient increases as n increases.
Question 60
Which statement is false?
Select one:
a. The coefficient of variation cannot be used when the mean is zero.

b. The skewness coefficient is zero in a sample from any normal distribution. 

c. The standard deviation is in the same units as the mean (e.g., kilograms).
d. The mean from a frequency tabulation may differ from the mean from raw data.
Question 61
Which is a characteristic of the standard deviation?
Select one:
a. It has a natural, concrete meaning.

b. It measures dispersion around the median. 

c. It is measured in the same units as the mean.
d. It is not greatly affected by outliers.
Question 62
The ______________ shows the relationship between two variables.
Select one:

a. scatter plot 
b. box plot
c. histogram
d. bar chart
Question 63
Three randomly chosen California students were asked how many times they drove to Mexico
last year. Their replies were 4, 5, 6. The geometric mean is
Select one:
a. 5.42.
b. 3.87.
c. 5.00.

d. 4.93. 
Question 64
Which is true of skewness?
Select one:
a. The expected range of Excel's skewness coefficient increases as n increases.
b. In a negatively skewed distribution, the mean is likely to exceed the median.

c. Skewness often is evidenced by one or more outliers. 

d. In business data, positive skewness is unusual.
Question 65
Which of the following statements is likely to be true?
Select one:
a. For income, the sum of squared deviations about the mean is negative about half the time.
b. For personal incomes in California, outliers in either tail would be equally likely.
c. The interquartile range offers a measure of income inequality among California

residents. 
d. The median personal income of California taxpayers would probably be near the mean.
Question 66
If Q1 = 150 and Q3 = 250, the upper fences (inner and outer) are:
Select one:
a. impossible to determine without more information.

b. 400 and 550. 

c. 450 and 600.
d. 350 and 450.
Question 67
Which of the following statements is likely to apply to the incomes of 50 randomly-chosen
taxpayers in California?
Select one:

a. The midhinge would be a robust measure of central tendency. 

b. Outliers in either tail would be equally likely.
c. The median income would probably be near the mean.
d. The sum of squared deviations about the mean would be negative.
Question 68
Based on daily measurements, Bob's weight has a mean of 200 pounds with a standard deviation
of 16 pounds, while Mary's weight has a mean of 125 pounds with a standard deviation of 15
pounds. Who has the smaller relative variation?
Select one:
a. Mary
b. They are the same.

c. Bob 
Question 69
Which of the following is not a valid description of an outlier?
Select one:
a. A data value that is very unusual.
b. A data value several standard deviations from the mean.
c. A data value beyond the outer fences.

d. A data value that lies below Q1 or above Q3. 

Question 70
Which is not a characteristic of the standard deviation?
Select one:
a. It can be calculated when the data contain negative or zero values.
b. It is always the square root of the variance.

c. It is not applicable when data are continuous. 

d. Its physical interpretation is not as easy as the MAD.
Question 71
Three randomly-chosen Colorado students were asked how many times they went rock climbing
last month. Their replies were 5, 6, 7. The standard deviation is
Select one:
a. 1.056

b. 1.000 
c. 0.816
d. 1.212
Question 72
A reporter for the campus paper asked five randomly chosen students how many occupants,
including the driver, ride to school in their cars. The responses were 1, 1, 1, 1, 6. The coefficient
of variation is:
Select one:
a. 112%
b. 250%
c. 25%

d. 100% 
Question 73
Twelve randomly-chosen students were asked how many times they had missed class during a
certain semester, with this result: 2, 1, 5, 1, 1, 3, 4, 3, 1, 1, 5, 18. For this sample, which measure
of central tendency is least representative of the "typical" student?
Select one:
a. Mode.
b. Median.

c. Midrange. 
d. Mean.
Question 74
Exam scores in a random sample of students were 0, 50, 50, 70, 70, 80, 90, 90, 90, 100. Which
statement is incorrect concerning dispersion and shape?
Select one:

a. The third quartile is 90. 

b. The data are slightly left-skewed.
c. The standard deviation is 29.61.
d. The midrange and mean are almost the same.