Question

Data are collected about the amount of time, in minutes, each band member spends practicing. How does a single outlier change the lower and upper quartiles of the collected data?

Answer 1

A single outlier does not affect the values of the quartiles.

Explanation:

It is given that data are collected for each band member that spends time on practicing in minutes.

We know that the interquartile range is defined as
`$\text{the difference between the upper quartile,}$`
`Q_3` and the lower quartile,
`Q_1`.

This interquartile range describes the middle i.e. the 50 percent of the values when it is ordered from the lowest to the highest or may be from the highest value to the lowest values.

Therefore, the IQR is considered to be a better measure of the spread then the range since the values are not affected by the outliers.

Therefore, we see that the single outlier does not affect the values of the quartiles, it does not change the lower quartile as well as the upper quartiles.