Measures of Variability

1. The following numbers give the data about the number of professionals in 12 accounting firms. Determine
the range, inter-quartile range, variance and standard deviation.
7 10 9 15 11 8 5 12 8 4 13 6

2. The number of checks cashed each day at the five branches of The Bank of Orange County during the past
month had the following frequency distribution:
Class: 0-200 200-400 400-600 600-800 800-1000
Frequency 10 13 17 42 18
Hank Spivey, director of operations for the bank, knows that a standard deviation in check cashing of more
than 250 checks per day creates staffing and organizational problems at the branches because of the
uneven workload. Should Hank worry about staffing next month?

3. The following is the record of the number of bricks laid each by two masons A and B

A 700 675 725 725 675 800 650

B 600 625 675 575 650 625 600
From the above data find out who is more efficient and who is more consistent among them?

4. You are given below the daily wages paid to the workers in two factories X and Y.

Daily Wages No. of workers

  Factory A Factory B
120-130 15 25
130-140 30 40
140-150 44 60
150-160 60 35
160-170 30 12
170-180 14 15
180-190 7 5

Using the appropriate measure, answer the following.

i) Which factory pays higher average wage?
ii) Which factory has a more consistent wage structure?

5. A production department uses a sampling procedure to test the quality of newly produced items. The
department employs the following decision rule at an inspection station. If the sample has a variance of
more than 0.005, the production line must be shut down for repairs. Suppose the following data have just
been collected:
3.43 3.45 3.43 3.48 3.52 3.50 3.39 3.48 3.41 3.38 3.49 3.45 3.51 3.50
Should the production line be shut down? Why or why not?