Question

Listed below are sorted duration times (seconds) of eruptions of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Use a class width of 25 seconds and begin with a lower class limit of 125 seconds.

a. 125 - 149 seconds
b. 150 - 174 seconds
c. 175 - 199 seconds
d. 200 - 224 seconds

Answer 1

The question involves organizing eruption times of Old Faithful into classes to create a frequency distribution with a class width of 25 seconds, teaching an essential statistical skill.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's question pertains to organizing eruption duration times of Old Faithful into a frequency distribution with a set class width. To begin this task, the duration times need to be grouped into intervals (referred to as classes). Each interval represents a range of times and maintains a consistent width, which in this case is 25 seconds.

The frequency distribution would look as follows:

• 125 - 149 seconds
• 150 - 174 seconds
• 175 - 199 seconds
• 200 - 224 seconds

This task demonstrates an application of statistics, a branch of mathematics focused on collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting empirical data. It is essential for students to understand how to group data efficiently to analyze characteristics such as central tendency and variability.

Observations regarding Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, and geysers suggest that eruption durations might be associated with the time between eruptions, a relationship that can be represented through a scatter plot and can be considered when analyzing the data.

Creating this frequency distribution is a foundational skill in statistics, and once these classes are established, the student can then count how many eruptions fall into each class to further analyze the data.