Question

Two athletes are training for a cycling race. Each athlete recorded the distance (in miles) of their previous 85 training rides. The box-and-whisker plots below (sometimes called boxplots) summarize the distances recorded for each athlete. Use the box-and-whisker plots to answer the questions. Athlete A Athlete B +D 45 10 15 20 25 30 Distance (in miles) (a) Which athlete went on the shortest training ride? (b) Which athlete had a greater median distance? (c) Which athlete went on more rides longer than 34 miles? (d) Which athlete had distances with a larger interquartile range (IQR)? 35 40 'Choose one' 'Choose one' 'Choose one' 'Choose one' O O

Answer 1

(a) Athlete B went on the shortest training ride, with a minimum distance of 10 miles.

(b) Athlete A had a greater median distance, as the median line of Athlete A's boxplot is higher than the median line of Athlete B's boxplot.

(c) Athlete A went on more rides longer than 34 miles, as there are more data points above the 34-mile mark on Athlete A's boxplot than on Athlete B's boxplot.

(d) Athlete A had distances with a larger interquartile range (IQR), as the length of Athlete A's box (IQR) is greater than the length of Athlete B's box. The IQR represents the middle 50% of the data, and a larger IQR indicates greater variability in the distances of Athlete A's training rides.