Question

Josh calculated the mean absolute deviation of the points he earned throughout the year in four of his classes: science, math, Spanish, and art.science: MAD of 1.14math: MAD of 1.6Spanish: MAD of 1.2art: MAD of 1.93In which class were his scores the closest together?A: scienceB: artC: mathD: Spanish

Answer 1

Given the mean absolute deviation in four classes

To Determine: In which class were the scores the closest together

Solution:

Explain Mean Absolute Deviation: The Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) of a set of data is the average distance between each data value and the mean. The mean absolute deviation can also be defined as the "average" of the "positive distances" of each point from the mean.

The larger the MAD, the greater variability there is in the data (the data is more spread out).

The lower the MAD, the lesser variability there is in the data (the data is less spread out). The MAD helps determine whether the set's mean is a useful indicator of the values within the set. The larger the MAD, the less relevant is the mean as an indicator of the values within the set.

From the given question, arranging the MAD in ascending order, we

`\begin{gathered} 1.14,1.2,1.6,1.93 \\ \text{Science, Spanish, Math, and Art} \end{gathered}`

The class with the lowest value of MAD is the class where the scores are the closest together.

Science has the lowest value of MAD. Hence, the class where the scores are closest together is SCIENCE