Question

The line plots represent data collected on the travel times to school from two groups of 15 students.

A horizontal line starting at 0, with tick marks every two units up to 28. The line is labeled Minutes Traveled. There is one dot above 4, 6, 14, and 28. There are two dots above 10, 12, 18, and 22. There are three dots above 16. The graph is titled Bus 47 Travel Times.

A horizontal line starting at 0, with tick marks every two units up to 28. The line is labeled Minutes Traveled. There is one dot above 8, 9, 18, 20, and 22. There are two dots above 6, 10, 12, 14, and 16. The graph is titled Bus 18 Travel Times.

Compare the data and use the correct measure of center to determine which bus typically has the faster travel time. Round your answer to the nearest whole number, if necessary, and explain your answer.

Bus 18, with a median of 13
Bus 47, with a median of 16
Bus 18, with a mean of 13
Bus 47, with a mean of 16

Answer 1

Bus 18 median of 13 minutes

Answer 2

To determine which bus typically has the faster travel time, we need to compare the measures of center for each data set. Since the data sets are relatively small and do not appear to have any extreme outliers, we can use either the mean or median as the measure of center.

Looking at the two line plots, we can see that Bus 18 has more dots clustered around the lower end of the scale, while Bus 47 has more dots spread out across the entire range of values. This suggests that Bus 18 may have a faster typical travel time.

Calculating the median for each data set confirms this suspicion. For Bus 18, the median is 13, which means that half of the students have a travel time of 13 minutes or less, and half have a travel time of 13 minutes or more. For Bus 47, the median is 16, which means that half of the students have a travel time of 16 minutes or less, and half have a travel time of 16 minutes or more.

Therefore, we can conclude that Bus 18 typically has the faster travel time, with a median of 13 minutes.