MAA161 S2, 2024/25 TUTORIAL 1

TUTORIAL 1
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

1. A group of hypertensive patients (with diastolic blood pressure between 110 and 130) were
given a medication for reducing elevated blood pressure. The reduction in blood pressure
produced by the medication were categorised into four categories as follows:
Category Decrease in Pressure
A: Marked decrease in blood pressure 15 or more units
B: Moderate decrease in blood pressure 10 to less than 15 units
C: Slight decrease in blood pressure 5 to less than 10 units
D: Stationary blood pressure 0 to less than 5 units

30 patients who used the medication experienced the following blood pressure reductions:
12 15 6 4 20 17 25 4 5 18
10 12 18 13 14 20 30 12 14 17
30 18 10 8 16 33 27 13 8 3

Draw a dot plot for the results. Describe the distribution as seen in the displays.

2. A back-to-back stem-and-leaf display is a display for two distributions sharing the same stem
values. Construct a back-to-back stem-and-leaf display for this set of data and compare the
distributions:
The total amount spent on books (to the nearest RM) was recorded for several students.
Some of the information was collected for the Semester 1 (denoted by S), and some was
collected for the Semester 2 (denoted by D).

Semester :S D D S D D D D S D S
Amount : 27 90 115 40 80 75 95 60 29 120 46

Semester :S D D S D D D S D D S
Amount : 35 75 80 50 125 95 79 20 95 65 42

Semester :D D D D D S D D
Amount : 80 69 112 105 108 37 98 92

1
 MAA161 S2, 2024/25 TUTORIAL 1

3. A sample of 25 lawn mowers of a given brand were filled with gasoline (one litre) and
allowed to run until the tank was empty. The times (in minutes) that the lawn mowers operated
were recorded as follows:
65 70 60 65 67 68 63 62 63 69 75 66 63
66 66 62 70 58 60 61 62 62 67 71 65

a) Form a frequency distribution table starting with 58 and a class size of 5.

4. The frequency distribution below shows the weight loss in pounds for a sample of 90
patients.
Weight Loss f
–0.5 ≤ x < 5.5 3
5.5 ≤ x < 10.5 14
10.5 ≤ x < 15.5 16
15.5 ≤ x < 20.5 27
20.5 ≤ x < 25.5 19
25.5 ≤ x < 30.5 9
30.5 ≤ x < 35.5 2
a) Construct a ‘less than’ cumulative frequency distribution and draw its ogive.
b) From the ogive, estimate the median weight loss.
c) Calculate the average weight loss and the standard deviation.
d) Using Chebyshev's theorem, find an interval that contains the weight loss of at least 87%.

5. The following frequency distribution gives the age distribution of drivers who were at fault
in car accidents during a one-week period in Georgetown.
Age Frequency
18 – 20 2
21 – 30 5
31 – 40 15
41 – 50 20
51 – 60 10
61 – 70 2

a) Find the mean and standard deviation of the age of the drivers.
b) What percentage of the drivers are between 45 and 55 years old?

2
 MAA161 S2, 2024/25 TUTORIAL 1

6. The commuting distance was determined for each of the 10 employees at USM as shown
below:
5, 10, 7, 15, 10, 12, 8, 118, 20, 18
Calculate the mean and median of the distance. Which measurement is most representative for
the data? Why?

7. From a sample of 50 scores on a statistics exam, the following results were obtained:
Mean: 78 Mode: 84 Standard deviation: 11
First quartile: 68 Median: 80 Third quartile: 95

a) What score was earned by more students than any other score? Explain.
b) How many students scored between 68 and 95 on the exam?
c) What can you say about the distribution of the data?
d) How many students scored within two standard deviations of the mean?

8. Consider the following two data sets:

a) Calculate the mean and standard deviation for each of the data set.
b) Comment on the relationship between the two means as well as the standard deviations.

9. The frequency distribution below shows the pay ranges (in thousands of RM) for all middle
management personnel in a large company.

Pay f
20 ≤ x < 30 4
30 ≤ x < 40 27
40 ≤ x < 50 29
50 ≤ x < 60 25
60 ≤ x < 70 17

a) Find the mean pay and the standard deviation of the pay of all middle management
personnel in the company.
b) Find the values of the three quartiles and P!" .

3
 MAA161 S2, 2024/25 TUTORIAL 1

10. A large sample is selected from a normal distribution. The middle 99.7% of the sample data
falls between 24.2 and 69.2. Estimate the sample mean and the sample standard deviation.

11. A research study of manual dexterity involved determining the time required to complete
a task. The time required for each of 40 disabled individuals is as follows (data are ranked):

7.1 7.2 7.2 7.6 7.6 7.9 8.1 8.1 8.1 8.3
8.3 8.4 8.4 8.9 9.0 9.0 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1
9.4 9.6 9.9 10.1 10.1 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.5 10.7
11.0 11.1 11.2 11.2 11.2 12.0 13.6 14.7 14.9 15.5

a) Find the five-number summary.