IXL | Interpret median and interquartile range

One of the events at the recent McKinley Middle School Carnival was a contest to see who could launch a water balloon the farthest using a giant slingshot. In the carnival's first 30 minutes, 12 students launched balloons. The median distance the balloons flew was 125 feet, and the interquartile range was 70 feet. None of the balloons flew more than 185 feet.

Which is a measure of how much the distances flown by the balloons varied?

30 feet

70 feet

125 feet

185 feet

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Learn with an example

question

Roxanne completed her first half-marathon, or 13.1-mile race, in less than 2.5 hours. She pressed the lap timer on her watch as she passed each mile marker so that after the race, she could look at her mile times. Her fastest mile was completed in 9.5 minutes, while the slowest took 11.5 minutes. Her median mile time was 10.5 minutes, and the interquartile range was 1 minute.

Which is a measure of how much Roxanne's mile times varied?

1 minute

9.5 minutes

10.5 minutes

11.5 minutes

key idea

The median is the middle value when a data set is ordered from least to greatest. It describes the center of the data set.

The interquartile range (IQR) is the range of the middle

50%

of the data set. It describes the variability of the data set.

solution

You want to describe how much Roxanne's mile times varied.

Use the interquartile range, since it describes the variability of the data set. The IQR was 1 minute.

So, Roxanne's mile times varied by 1

minute.

Looking for more? Try these:

Lesson: Mean, median, mode, and range

Lesson: Interquartile range

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Not feeling ready yet? These can help:

OO.3Find the median

JJ.7Calculate quartiles and interquartile range

Lesson: Mean, median, mode, and range

Lesson: Interquartile range

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