Question

You are a research scientist studying bioluminescent bacteria (bacteria that can glow). You grow several plates of bacteria and give them a special chemical that you hypothesize will increase their luminescence, or brightness. You turn off the lights and use a device called a photometer to measure the light levels (in lumens) coming from each plate. You collect the following data:

Plate 1: 7 lumens, 6 lumens, 13 lumens
Plate 2: 4 lumens, 5 lumens, 7 lumens
Plate 3: 3 lumens, 6 lumens, 7 lumens
Plate 4: 5 lumens, 5 lumens, 8 lumens
Which of the following pieces of data is likely an outlier

Answer 1

Plate 1 is most likely the outlier

Answer 2

Data of plate 1 is an outlier

Step-by-step explanation:

An outlier value is the one which has maximum distance from the mean observed value.

In plate 2,3 and 4 the maximum differences between the observed values of luminescence is 3, 4 and 3 lumen respectively. Thus, plate 2,3 and 4 are not outlier.

While in plate 1, the the maximum differences between the observed values of luminescence is 7, thus plate 1 shows data that is an outlier.