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Difficulty: MediumMeasures of Dispersion

A scientist records the temperature changes, in degrees Celsius, of a chemical solution during five different phases of an experiment. The recorded changes are: −2.5-2.5, 3.03.0, −5.5-5.5, 4.54.5, and −1.0-1.0. What is the range of these temperature changes?

  1. 10.010.0Answer
  2. B
    1.51.5
  3. C
    1.01.0
  4. D
    −1.0-1.0

Answer

10.010.0
The correct answer is found by taking the highest value in the dataset (4.54.5) and subtracting the lowest value (−5.5-5.5). Using the rules for subtracting negative numbers, 4.5−(−5.5)4.5 - (-5.5) becomes 4.5+5.54.5 + 5.5, which equals 10.010.0.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Order the dataset from least to greatest.
−5.5,−2.5,−1.0,3.0,4.5-5.5, -2.5, -1.0, 3.0, 4.5
Sorting the data is necessary to correctly identify the minimum and maximum values in the set.
2
Identify the maximum and minimum values.
Maximum = 4.54.5, Minimum = −5.5-5.5
The range formula requires the absolute highest and lowest numbers in the dataset.
3
Subtract the minimum value from the maximum value.
4.5−(−5.5)=4.5+5.5=10.04.5 - (-5.5) = 4.5 + 5.5 = 10.0
Range is defined as the difference between the highest and lowest values, measuring the total spread of the data.

Key Concept

Range is calculated by finding the difference between the maximum and minimum values in a dataset.
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Topics

Measures of Dispersion

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