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Chapter 3

Descriptive Statistics: Numerical Measures

What percentage of students have an SAT verbal score greater than 615?
What percentage of students have an SAT verbal score greater than 715?
What percentage of students have an SAT verbal score between 415 and 515?
What percentage of students have an SAT verbal score between 315 and 615?
The high costs in the California real estate market have caused families who cannot afford to buy
bigger homes to consider backyard sheds as an alternative form of housing expansion. Many
are using the backyard structures for home offices, art studios, and hobby areas as well as for
additional storage. The mean price of a customized wooden, shingled backyard struc-ture is
$3100 (Newsweek, September 29, 2003). Assume that the standard deviation is $1200.

What is the z-score for a backyard structure costing $2300?

What is the z-score for a backyard structure costing $4900?
Interpret the z-scores in parts (a) and (b). Comment on whether either should be considered an outlier.
The Newsweek article described a backyard shed-office combination built in Albany,
California, for $13,000. Should this structure be considered an outlier? Explain.

Florida Power & Light (FP&L) Company has enjoyed a reputation for quickly fixing its
electric system after storms. However, during the hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, a
new reality was that the companys historical approach to emergency electric system
repairs was no longer good enough (The Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2006). Data
showing the days required to restore electric service after seven hurricanes during 2004
and 2005 follow.

Hurricane

Days to Restore Service

Charley

13

Frances

12

Jeanne

Dennis

Katrina

Rita

Wilma

18

Based on this sample of seven, compute the following descriptive statistics:

Mean, median, and mode
Range and standard deviation
Should Wilma be considered an outlier in terms of the days required to restore elec-tric
service?

WEB file
NCAA

The seven hurricanes resulted in 10 million service interruptions to customers. Do the

statistics show that FP&L should consider updating its approach to emergency elec-tric
system repairs? Discuss.
A sample of 10 NCAA college basketball game scores provided the following data (USA Today,
January 26, 2004).

Winning
Winning Team

Points

Losing Team

Points

Margin

Arizona

90

Oregon

66

24

Duke

85

Georgetown

66

19

Florida State

75

Wake Forest

70

Kansas

78

Colorado

57

21

Kentucky

71

Notre Dame

63

Louisville

65

Tennessee

62

Oklahoma State

72

Texas

66