Back to Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context — Problem 5 · Task Set 29

Exercises: Summarizing Data Sets

Show your work. Always state units when interpreting your answers.

Grade 6·22 problems·~45 min·Common Core Math - Grade 6·standard·6-sp-b-5

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Fluency Practice

Compute each summary statistic. Show your work step by step.

A student computes the 'average deviation' by finding each value's distance from the mean but forgets absolute values. She adds the signed deviations: (3−7) + (5−7) + (7−7) + (9−7) + (11−7) = (−4)+(−2)+0+2+4 = 0. She concludes 'the average deviation is 0, meaning the data has no variation.' What went wrong?

She should have divided by n−1 instead of n.

She forgot to take the absolute value of each deviation. Signed deviations always sum to zero, so she needs |value − mean| before averaging.

She computed the mean incorrectly.

She is correct — the data has no variation.