Data Set 4-6: -1, 3, 0, 2, 1
-Which of the following distributions of scores is less variable than Data Set 4-6? (You should be able to answer by just by eyeballing the numbers.)
A) 3, -2, -2, -1, 0
B) 0, -3, 3, 2, -2
C) 2, 4, 6, 8, 10
D) none of the other alternatives are correct.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The variability of a data set refers to how spread out the numbers are. Data Set 4-6 has numbers ranging from -1 to 3, which is a range of 4. Option A has a range of 3 (-2 to 1), but its numbers are more spread out around the mean than Data Set 4-6. Option B has a range of 6 (-3 to 3), which is more variable. Option C has a range of 8 (2 to 10), which is also more variable. Therefore, none of the provided options are less variable than Data Set 4-6.