Question

Difficulty: MediumSorting and Multi-Column Ordering

The table below presents response metrics for eight municipal fire stations.

Station IDDistrictAverage Response Time (min)On-Time Response Rate (%)Annual Emergency Calls
Station 101North4.893.0%1,420
Station 102North5.291.0%1,850
Station 103East4.296.0%1,100
Station 104South5.888.5%2,100
Station 105West4.895.0%1,600
Station 106East5.589.0%1,350
Station 107West4.595.5%1,750
Station 108South5.092.5%1,900

True or False: If the table is sorted in ascending order by Average Response Time (min), with any ties broken by sorting in descending order by On-Time Response Rate (%), Station 101 is ranked 4th from the top.

Answer: Answer

Answer

True
Sorting primarily by Average Response Time (ascending) places Station 103 (4.2) first, Station 107 (4.5) second, and creates a tie between Station 101 and Station 105 at 4.8 minutes. Applying the secondary sort by On-Time Response Rate (descending) puts Station 105 (95.0%) in 3rd place and Station 101 (93.0%) in 4th place, confirming the statement.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Sort the dataset by the primary criterion: Average Response Time (min) in ascending order.
Station 103 (4.2 min) is 1st, Station 107 (4.5 min) is 2nd. Station 101 and Station 105 tie for the next positions with 4.8 min.
Ascending order places smaller response times first.
2
Apply the secondary tie-breaker criterion to the tied stations (Station 101 and Station 105): On-Time Response Rate (%) in descending order.
Station 105 (95.0%) is ranked 3rd, and Station 101 (93.0%) is ranked 4th.
Descending order places higher percentages above lower percentages.
3
Verify the rank of Station 101 against the statement in the prompt.
Station 101 is indeed ranked 4th overall.
The evaluation confirms the statement is true.

Key Concept

Multi-Column Table Sorting and Tie-Breaking
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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