Question

Last year, 12 hydrange bushes had a mean of 14 blooms each, with a standard deviation of 2. The dot plot shows the number of blooms on the same bushes this year after a new plant food is used. What conclusions can you draw about the use of the new plant foor and the number of blooms?​

Answer 1

Answer: The plant food produces more blooms on average, but the results aren't as consistent as before.

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Explanation:

The dot plot leads to this data set

{8, 12, 12, 17, 17, 18, 18, 18, 19, 19, 20, 23}

Using pencil/paper, or using technology, you should find the following properties of this data set

• mean = 16.75
• sample standard deviation = 4.11

The second value is approximate. Both the mean and standard deviation are larger than their original counterparts (mean = 14 and std dev = 2).

Since the mean is larger, this means the data points have been shifted to the right further. The larger standard deviation tells us that the data is more spread out.

So it appears this new plant food has made the number of blooms increase overall, but it's also made the data more inconsistent. A smaller standard deviation would mean a more narrow set of points and therefore more consistent values (they'd all be clumped around the mean better).