A county manager used a representative sample of two populations in the county to determine the number of pounds of trash thrown
away per person per week. The results are shown in the dot plots below. Sample 1: A dot plot titled Sample 1. A number line going from 0.5 to 2.5 in increments of 0.5 is labeled Pounds of Trash. There is 1 dot above 0.5, 3 above 1, 4 above 1.5, 2 above 2, and 2 above 2.5. Sample 2: A dot plot titled Sample 2. A number line going from 0.5 to 2.5 in increments of 0.5 is labeled Pounds of Trash. There are 2 dots above 0.5, 3 above 1, 4 above 1.5, 2 above 2, and 1 above 2.5. The town manager uses the median to show that the average amount of trash thrown away per person per week in each sample is the same. What is the town manager’s error? The medians of the data sets are not the same. He should have used the mean to determine the average because the data sets are approximately symmetric. He should have used the IQR of the data sets to determine the average because the first data set has more large numbers than the second data set. He should have used the MAD to determine the average because the data sets do not contain outliers.
