Could someone please help me on this small Maths question?

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sonyxperiageek

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#116121 18-Apr-2013 20:46

Hi, I didn't really get the meanings of some of the words in the below Maths question.

Could someone please help me answer it? I would love to give you a (virtual) chocolate fish.

Thanks in Advance!

Sony

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#801892 18-Apr-2013 20:51

This may help you with the 2nd part :) http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111212214119AAmL0MG

sonyxperiageek

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#801898 18-Apr-2013 21:06

ubergeeknz: This may help you with the 2nd part :) http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111212214119AAmL0MG

Thanks!

Sony

Oriphix

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#801945 18-Apr-2013 22:27

For question a)

I would say English. The main reason being that its at 6 which is high however ever the low isn't that low its still at 4 which is the same as maths. The science isn't as high as English but its still lower then the other two......

Bahhh I hate maths -.-

Hope that helps, I am only assuming so don't blame me if you get it wrong :P

sonyxperiageek

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#801955 18-Apr-2013 22:45

Oriphix: For question a)

I would say English. The main reason being that its at 6 which is high however ever the low isn't that low its still at 4 which is the same as maths. The science isn't as high as English but its still lower then the other two......

Bahhh I hate maths -.-

Hope that helps, I am only assuming so don't blame me if you get it wrong :P

Yeah, that's what i think too.. English, because the top 50% of students are above 5 whereas the other subjects are only 25% above rank 5.

Sony

Idiot

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#801977 18-Apr-2013 23:18

Well the graph provides basically no information as it's categorical data. Box plots are for numerical data.

Batman

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#802005 19-Apr-2013 02:40

Math.

Justify-

To rate something overall best way is to use mean, thr average of the sum of the parts.

Deriving from the plot

Math has 50% of data between 5 and six, 25% data between 4-5 25% data between 3-4. The mean should be just under 5.

Mean for science is 4

Mean for english is between 4-5 but less than that for math as the 25% data between 1-4 weighs down the mean more than the 25% data between 6-7 pulls it up.

Btw what level math is this? I rckon 1st year uni huh

It's all in the justification there is no hard and fast right answer

sonyxperiageek

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#802227 19-Apr-2013 12:32

joker97: Math.

Justify-

To rate something overall best way is to use mean, thr average of the sum of the parts.

Deriving from the plot

Math has 50% of data between 5 and six, 25% data between 4-5 25% data between 3-4. The mean should be just under 5.

Mean for science is 4

Mean for english is between 4-5 but less than that for math as the 25% data between 1-4 weighs down the mean more than the 25% data between 6-7 pulls it up.

Btw what level math is this? I rckon 1st year uni huh

It's all in the justification there is no hard and fast right answer

I thought it was English because the top 50% were above 5, compared with just 25% the rest..Year 10 btw... :P

Sony

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#802243 19-Apr-2013 13:04

you're probably right ... it was very late last night!

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#802245 19-Apr-2013 13:06

don't worry too much about the answer itself (unless it was a scholarship exam and money is involved)

it's teaching you the process of thinking for yourself and applying what you know and justifying your reasoning ... might be handy in the future

sonyxperiageek

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#802281 19-Apr-2013 13:48

ok, thanks anyway! :)

Sony

stuzzo

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#802323 19-Apr-2013 15:09

I think the answer is that you can't tell which subject ranks highest because a ranking statistic doesn't give you enough information about the average score in these examples.

Reasoning: As the number of students gets very large, for each percentile, the maximum or minimum average that can occur will approach the top or bottom value of each percentile as only one score needs to be at the bottom or top of the percentile.

So, let's take English versus Science which is perhaps the most counter-intuitive comparison. The sum of the maximum averages of the percentiles for Science is 7+5+4+3=19 and for English the minimums gives 6+5+4+1=16 so the average score for Science can be greater than English.

But I'm just a university drop-out so what would I know!

nakedmolerat

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#802324 19-Apr-2013 15:11

Easy

a) Maths rated the BEST - most students gave score 4-5 (you need to imagine the box-plot as histogram or area under the graph to understand this better). English is the second best as they have median value higher than Science. English is not the best because the number of students who like/dislikes the subject is spread out more than maths.

b) Both median and upper quartile is 5 whilst the lower quartile is 4. This means 50% of the students choose score of 4 and 5. From that group more than 50% of them chose score of 5 (or more than 25% overall).

stuzzo

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#802327 19-Apr-2013 15:30

No, I stand by my answer to that, if my understanding of box charts is correct, only one score needs to define the bottom of the percentile and all other scores could be at the top and vice versa so you have to go on that assumption.

sonyxperiageek

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#802329 19-Apr-2013 15:32

nakedmolerat:

Easy

a) Maths rated the BEST - most students gave score 4-5 (you need to imagine the box-plot as histogram or area under the graph to understand this better). English is the second best as they have median value higher than Science. English is not the best because the number of students who like/dislikes the subject is spread out more than maths.

b) Both median and upper quartile is 5 whilst the lower quartile is 4. This means 50% of the students choose score of 4 and 5. From that group more than 50% of them chose score of 5 (or more than 25% overall).

After a lot of thinking, it looks like you may be correct! Thank you very much! I was wrong to just look at the Median and forget about the Range, upon deciding English was better..

So you're pretty sure that is the correct answer?

Thanks again!

Sony

sonyxperiageek

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#802330 19-Apr-2013 15:32

nakedmolerat:

Easy

a) Maths rated the BEST - most students gave score 4-5 (you need to imagine the box-plot as histogram or area under the graph to understand this better). English is the second best as they have median value higher than Science. English is not the best because the number of students who like/dislikes the subject is spread out more than maths.

b) Both median and upper quartile is 5 whilst the lower quartile is 4. This means 50% of the students choose score of 4 and 5. From that group more than 50% of them chose score of 5 (or more than 25% overall).

Sony

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