Which data display would be best to use if you want to know the median value and how spread out a data set is?
a box and whisker plot
a histogram
a dot plot
a scatter plot
A box and whisker plot?
agree
yes
Yes, a box and whisker plot would be the best data display to use if you want to know the median value and how spread out a data set is.
To create a box and whisker plot, you can follow these steps:
1. Arrange the data in numerical order from smallest to largest.
2. Find the median of the data set, which is the middle value if there is an odd number of data points or the average of the two middle values if the number of data points is even.
3. Split the data into two halves at the median, creating the lower and upper halves.
4. Find the median of the lower half, which is called the first quartile (Q1). This represents the 25th percentile.
5. Find the median of the upper half, which is called the third quartile (Q3). This represents the 75th percentile.
6. Draw a number line and mark the values of Q1, median, and Q3.
7. Draw a box that spans from Q1 to Q3.
8. Draw a line within the box to represent the median.
9. Extend lines, or whiskers, from the box to the minimum and maximum values of the data, excluding any outliers.
10. Plot any outliers as individual points above or below the whiskers.
A box and whisker plot allows you to visually see the median as the line within the box, and the spread of the data set by the length of the whiskers.