Central Tendency and Variation Practice Problems

1. The following sample data gives the tensile strength of a certain metal component
(in kg/cm2):

3.4 6.5 7.1 7.1 7.4 7.6 7.7

7.8 7.8 8.0 8.1 8.4 8.4 8.6

8.6 8.7 8.9 9.1 9.2 11.9 12.0

a) What is the range of the data?

b) Find the midrange.

c) What is the mean?

d) Find the standard deviation.

 2. The following frequency table give the weekly sulphur oxide emissions (in tons) by
an industrial plant over the past 40 weeks:

Sulphur Oxide Frequency

10 – 19 3

20 – 29 9

30 – 39 12

40 – 49 16

a) What is the mean?

b) What is the standard deviation?

3. A researcher gathers the following sample data for the breaking strength of a thin rod
of an experimental high density alloy (data are in kg/cm2)

15.5 15.6 12.9 20.6 17.0 16.3 22.4 23.5 19.2

a) Find the mean

b) Find the standard deviation

 4. The following data represents the waste material (in grams) per product for 16
different products manufactured on a metal lathe:

46.8 67.0 71.7 44.6 58.9 32.9 74.2 75.1

76.2 38.1 68.3 70.8 73.8 64.6 71.9 78.9

(a) What is the mean for this data?

(b) What is the median?

(c) Find the standard deviation of the data.

(d) How many values are within two standard deviations of the mean?

5. A certain population has a mean of 70 kg with a standard deviation of 3.8 kg

a) According to the Empirical rule what range could we expect to see 68% of the values fall
between?

b) Would a mass of 62 kg be considered unusual in this population?