Joseph measures the ropes used to tie boats to a dock. He records the lengths of the ropes in feet and then makes a line plot.

Question

Joseph measures the ropes used to tie boats to a dock. He records the lengths of the ropes in feet and then makes a line plot.

Joseph concludes that the difference between the longest and shortest lengths is.
2
1
2
feet.
Marta disagrees and says that there is no difference. Who is correct?
Use the drop-down menus to show and explain your answer.

Marta
is correct because you.
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the greatest and least lengths represented by the
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, not the number of
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at the greatest and least lengths.

Answer 1

Marta is correct because you cannot determine the difference between the longest and shortest lengths based on a line plot that only shows individual measurements without indicating the maximum and minimum values. The line plot only displays the values that were recorded, not the range of possible values in between. Therefore, it is impossible to know the true difference between the longest and shortest lengths just by looking at the line plot.