Question

There has been much media coverage of the high cost of medicinal drugs in the United States. One concern is the large variation from pharmacy to pharmacy. To investigate, a consumer advocacy group took a random sample of 100 pharmacies around the country and recorded the price (in dollars per 100 pills) of Prozac. Compute the range, variance, and standard deviation of the prices. Discuss what these statistics tell you.

Answer 1

Data for the question :

102.05 99.85 112.3 97.15 111.23 105.37 105.64 106.5 102.97 107.82 106.36 111.24 107.28 114.14 106.28 106.96 98.25 111.55 107.75 101.02 101.12 97.7 97.66 100.54 115.77 112.91 111.04 112.15 102.87 101.14 107.13 108.56 109.56 103.57 108.68 104.59 116.74 116.22 100.22 103.97 111.2 109.34 115.78 101.59 107.93 104.23 96.25 103.84 102.47 102.96 99.26 101.42 108.58 107.69 99.88 102.71 111.25 99.4 117.04 106.35 110.44 102.34 107.25 107.63 105.2 109.14 115.54 101.51 108.49 112.32 109.27 97.54 102.46 105.94 109.42 111.05 102.63 106.99 102.03 108.84 118.8 108.64 95.35 105.47 104.45 102.15 111.4 108.27 104.82 108.4 109.05 116.11 103.7 121.2 99.62 102.81 109.56 103.35 113.02 103.79

Answer:

Range = 25.35

Variance = 29.46

Standard deviation = 5.43

The variation in price of Prozac is high

Explanation:

The range of the data :

Maximum - Minimum.

121.2 - 95.35 = 25.35

The variance, s :

s² = Σ(X - m²) / n - 1

Mean, m = Σx / n

X = individual data point

m = mean of data

n = sample size

Using a calculator of save time and ensure accuracy :

s² = 29.45522

The standard deviation, s

s = sqrt(variance)

s = sqrt(s²)

s = sqrt(29.45522)

s = 5.42726.

The range, variance and standard deviation, all measure the degree of variation in a dataset. The values of these statistical measure obtain for the price of 1 product across different pharmaceutical stores, suggests thatvthe variation in price is high;

With a range of about 25.35 and standard deviation of 5.43