Box Plots

Front

What is a box plot?

Back

A box plot, or box-and-whisker plot, is a graphical representation of a dataset that shows its minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, and maximum.

Front

What does the minimum value represent in a box plot?

Back

The minimum value is the smallest data point in the dataset.

Front

What does the median represent in a box plot?

Back

The median is the middle value of the dataset when it is ordered from least to greatest.

Front

What are quartiles in a box plot?

Back

Quartiles divide the dataset into four equal parts: Q1 (25th percentile), Q2 (50th percentile or median), and Q3 (75th percentile).

Front

How do you find the median of a dataset?

Back

To find the median, arrange the numbers in order and identify the middle value. If there is an even number of values, average the two middle values.

Front

What does the whisker in a box plot represent?

Back

The whiskers extend from the box to the minimum and maximum values, showing the range of the data.

Front

What is the interquartile range (IQR)?

Back

The IQR is the difference between the first quartile (Q1) and the third quartile (Q3), representing the middle 50% of the data.

Front

How can you identify outliers in a box plot?

Back

Outliers are typically represented as individual points outside the whiskers, often defined as values that are 1.5 times the IQR above Q3 or below Q1.

Front

What is the significance of the median in comparing datasets?

Back

The median provides a measure of central tendency that is less affected by outliers than the mean, making it useful for comparison.

Front

How do you interpret the spread of data in a box plot?

Back

The spread of data can be interpreted by the length of the box and whiskers; a longer box indicates more variability.