Question

Eight students were absent the following number of days in a year: 4,8,0,1,7,2,6,and 3. Decide if the range or interquartile range better describes the data set, and explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

For this example the range is 8 - 0 = 8.  The interquartile range is 6.5 - 1.5 = 5.

The range is the better measure of variability because the data is arranged so that the spread of data is about the same from the beginning to the end.  

There are not more numbers that fall in the middle half of the data when compared to the entire data set.