Question

lesson 14 practice problems
1 the number of letters received in the mail over the past week is recorded
2 3 5 5 5 15
which value appears to be an outlier?
a 2
b 3
c 5
d 15
2 elena collects 112 specimens of beetle and records their lengths for an ecology research project. when she returns to the laboratory, elena finds that she incorrectly recorded one of lengths of the beetles as 122 centimeters (about 4 feet). what should she do with the outlier, 122 centimeters, when she analyzes her data?

Explanation:

Step1: Understand the concept of outlier

An outlier is a data - point that is significantly different from other data - points in a dataset.

Step2: Analyze the first dataset

In the dataset 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 15, most of the values are 2, 3, or 5. The value 15 is much larger than the other values. So 15 is the outlier.

Step3: Analyze the second situation

Since the length of 122 centimeters for a beetle is an incorrect recording (clearly an error as beetles are not that large), Elena should correct or remove this outlier when analyzing her data.

Answer:

1. D. 15
2. Correct or remove the outlier.