Question

To become the president of the United States, a candidate does not have to receive a majority of the popular vote. The candidate does have to win a majority of the 538 Electoral College votes. Here is a stemplot of the number if electoral votes in 2016 for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Below are a boxplot and some numerical summaries of the electoral vote data.

Without doing additional calculations, which of the following is an aspect of this distribution that the stemplot reveals but the boxplot does not?
1) The range of the data
2) The median of the data
3) The mode of the data
4) The standard deviation of the data

Answer 1

The stemplot reveals the mode of the data, which is the aspect of the electoral vote distribution that is not shown in the boxplot.

Step-by-step explanation:

To answer the question about which aspect of the distribution of electoral votes is revealed by a stemplot but not by a boxplot, we should consider what each graphical representation shows us:

• A stemplot (also known as a stem-and-leaf plot) displays data points and shows the shape of the distribution, including any modes.
• A boxplot provides a summary of the distribution and includes the median, the interquartile range (IQR), and potential outliers but does not show individual data points or modes.

Given these characteristics, the stemplot can reveal the mode of the data, which is the most frequently occurring number of electoral votes among the states and the District of Columbia. This aspect is not visible in the boxplot, which focuses on median, quartiles, and outliers, without indicating how often a particular value occurs. Therefore, the correct choice is: 3) The mode of the data.