Chapter 2

Quartiles, Deciles and Percentile

Section 2.5

Measures of Position

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Objectives Example: Finding Quartiles

 Determine the quartiles of a data set The test scores of 15 employees enrolled in a CPR training course
 Determine the interquartile range of a data set are listed. Find the first, second, and third quartiles of the test
 Create a box-and-whisker plot scores.
 Interpret other fractiles such as percentiles 13 9 18 15 14 21 7 10 11 20 5 18 37 16 17
 Determine and interpret the standard score (z-score)
Solution:
• Q2 divides the data set into two halves.
Lower half Upper half

5 7 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 18 20 21 37
Q2
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Quartiles Solution: Finding Quartiles

 Fractiles are numbers that partition (divide) an ordered data set  The first and third quartiles are the medians of the lower and
into equal parts. upper halves of the data set.
Lower half Upper half
 Quartiles approximately divide an ordered data set into four 5 7 9 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 18 20 21 37
equal parts.
 First quartile, Q1: About one quarter of the data fall on or below Q1 Q2 Q3
Q1.
 Second quartile, Q2: About one half of the data fall on or below
Q2 (median). About one fourth of the employees scored 10 or less, about
 Third quartile, Q3: About three quarters of the data fall on or one half scored 15 or less; and about three fourths scored 18
below Q3. or less.

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Chapter 2

Interquartile Range Drawing a Box-and-Whisker Plot

Interquartile Range (IQR) 1. Find the five-number summary of the data set.
 The difference between the third and first quartiles.
2. Construct a horizontal scale that spans the range of the data.
3. Plot the five numbers above the horizontal scale.
 IQR = Q3 – Q1
4. Draw a box above the horizontal scale from Q1 to Q3 and draw
a vertical line in the box at Q2.
5. Draw whiskers from the box to the minimum and maximum
entries.
Box
Whisker Whisker

Minimum Maximum
entry entry
Q1 Median, Q2 Q3
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Example: Finding the Interquartile Example: Drawing a Box-and-Whisker

Range Plot
Find the interquartile range of the test scores. Draw a box-and-whisker plot that represents the 15 test scores.
Recall Q1 = 10, Q2 = 15, and Q3 = 18 Recall Min = 5 Q1 = 10 Q2 = 15 Q3 = 18 Max = 37

Solution:
Solution:
• IQR = Q3 – Q1 = 18 – 10 = 8
5 10 15 18 37
The test scores in the middle portion of the data set vary
by at most 8 points. About half the scores are between 10 and 18. By looking at the
length of the right whisker, you can conclude 37 is a possible
outlier.
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Box-and-Whisker Plot Percentiles and Other Fractiles

Box-and-whisker plot Fractiles Summary Symbols
 Exploratory data analysis tool. Quartiles Divides data into 4 equal parts Q1, Q2, Q3
 Highlights important features of a data set. Deciles Divides data into 10 equal D1, D2, D3,…, D9
 Requires (five-number summary): parts
 Minimum entry Percentiles Divides data into 100 equal P1, P2, P3,…, P99
 First quartile Q1 parts
 Median Q2
 Third quartile Q3
 Maximum entry

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Chapter 2

Finding the Percentile that Corresponds to a

More about Percentiles Data Value
The median divides the lower 50% of a set of data from the
Step 1: Arrange the data in ascending order.
upper 50% of a set of data. In general, the kth percentile,
denoted Pk , of a set of data divides the lower k% of a data set Step 2: Use the following formula to determine the
from the upper (100 – k) % of a data set. percentile of the score, x:

Percentile of x =

Round this number to the nearest integer.

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Computing the kth Percentile, Pk

Step 1: Arrange the data in ascending order. Example: Finding Percentiles
Step 2: Compute an index i using the following formula:
The test scores of 15 employees enrolled in a CPR training course
are listed.
13 9 18 15 14 21 7 10 11 20 5 18 37 16 17
where k is the percentile of the data value and n is the
number of individuals in the data set. Find the percentile rank of the data value 13.
Step 3: (a) If i is not an integer, round up to the next highest
integer. Locate the ith value of the data set written in
ascending order. This number represents the kth
percentile.
(b) If i is an integer, the kth percentile is the arithmetic
mean of the ith and (i + 1)st data value.
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Example: Finding Percentiles Example: Interpreting Percentiles

The test scores of 15 employees enrolled in a CPR training course The ogive represents the cumulative
are listed. frequency distribution for SAT test
13 9 18 15 14 21 7 10 11 20 5 18 37 16 17 scores of college-bound students in a
Find the recent year. What test score
(a) 75th percentile represents the 72nd percentile? How
should you interpret this? (Source:
(b) 35th percentile
College Board Online)

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Solution: Comparing z-Scores from

Solution: Interpreting Percentiles Different Data Sets
 Forest Whitaker
The 72nd percentile corresponds
x 45  43.7 0.15 standard
to a test score of 1700. z   0.15 deviations above the
This means that 72% of the  8.8 mean
students had an SAT score of
1700 or less. • Helen Mirren
x 61  36 2.17 standard
z   2.17 deviations above the
 11.5 mean

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Solution: Comparing z-Scores from

The Standard Score Different Data Sets
Standard Score (z-score)
 Represents the number of standard deviations a given value x falls
from the mean μ.

value - mean x z = 0.15 z = 2.17

 z 
standard deviation  The z-score corresponding to the age of Helen Mirren is
more than two standard deviations from the mean, so it is
considered unusual. Compared to other Best Actress
winners, she is relatively older, whereas the age of Forest
Whitaker is only slightly higher than the average age of other
Best Actor winners.
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Example: Comparing z-Scores from

Different Data Sets Practice Questions
In 2007, Forest Whitaker won the Best Actor Oscar at age 45 for Q (2.15)
his role in the movie The Last King of Scotland. Helen Mirren won Given the following data set.
the Best Actress Oscar at age 61 for her role in The Queen. The
mean age of all best actor winners is 43.7, with a standard Data: 78, 82, 86, 88, 92, 97
deviation of 8.8. The mean age of all best actress winners is 36, (a) Find the percentile rank for each of the values 86 & 92.
with a standard deviation of 11.5. Find the z-score that corresponds (b)Find the data value corresponding to the 30th percentile.
to the age for each actor or actress. Then compare your results.

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Chapter 2

Practice Questions
Q (2.16)
Identify the five number summary and find the Interquartile
range.
Data: 6, 8, 12, 19, 27, 32, 54

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Practice Questions
Q (2.17)
Use the box plot to identify minimum value, maximum value,
first quartile, Median (second quartile), and third quartile.

50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100

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Section 2.5 Summary

 Determined the quartiles of a data set
 Determined the interquartile range of a data set
 Created a box-and-whisker plot
 Interpreted other fractiles such as percentiles
 Determined and interpreted the standard score
(z-score)

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