THE NEXT QUESTIONS ARE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION:
The police lieutenant in charge of the traffic division has reviewed the number of traffic citations issued per day by each of the 10 police officers in his division.The data were: 13,21,12,34,31,13,22,26,25,and 23.
-What is the third quartile of the number of citations issued per day?
A)22.0
B)22.5
C)13.0
D)27.25

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The third quartile (Q3) is the median of the upper half of the data set. First, arrange the data in ascending order: 12, 13, 13, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 31, 34. Since there are 10 data points, the upper half after the median (which is between 22 and 23) consists of the last 5 numbers: 23, 25, 26, 31, 34. The median of these 5 numbers is 26, which is the third quartile. However, the correct calculation involves averaging the middle two numbers of the upper half (25 and 26) when considering them as a separate data set, leading to (25+26)/2 = 25.5, which is not an option provided. Given the options, the closest process involves considering the entire data set and calculating Q3 directly, which seems to have been intended to result in 27.25 based on the options provided, indicating a possible mistake in the calculation or in the options given. Without exact quartile calculation methods (which vary), based on the provided options, D would be selected, acknowledging a discrepancy in the explanation.