Describing Data Graphically
The data for these exercises are in the Minitab file DescribingDataGraphically_Activity.mtw.
Exercise 1
(a) Construct a histogram of this data in Minitab.
(b) Change the histogram bins to cutpoints (boundary values), instead of midpoints.
(c) Add the following enhancements to the histogram from part (b).
(d) Which film appears to be an outlier with respect to film length?
The film “Rope” appears to be the outlier with respect to film length.
(e) Construct a stem-and-leaf plot of the “Film Lengths (min)” data in Minitab. Let Minitab
choose the increment value.
Minitab uses an increment of 5 minutes.
Stem-and-leaf of Film Lengths (min) N = 22
1 8 1
1 8
1 9
1 9
4 10 133
8 10 5888
10 11 13
(4) 11 6679
8 12 000
5 12 68
3 13 02
1 13 6
Leaf Unit = 1
(f) Use your plot in part (e). Ignore the first column for now [1, 1, 1, 1, 4, 8, 10, (4), 8, 5, 3, 1], and
interpret row 6. What are the lengths of these Hitchcock films?
Row 6 contain the following: 10|5888. These results in row 6 indicate that the sample data
contain Hitchcock film lengths of 105, 108, 108, and 108 minutes, respectively
(g) What is the longest film length from this sample of Hitchcock films?
The film “North by Northwest” is the longest film length that contain 136 minutes.
(h) Are there any Hitchcock films in this sample that have lengths between 85 and 100 minutes?
There are no Hitchcock films that have lengths between 85 and 100 minutes.
(i) Now let’s use the first column, or the “count” column, of the stem-and-leaf plot for Hitchcock
film lengths. How many of the sample Hitchcock films have lengths less than 110 minutes?
There are 8 Hitchcock films that have lengths less than 110 minutes.
(j) What is the mode or modes of the sample of Hitchcock film lengths?
108 and 120 minutes appear to be the most common film lengths.
(k)This is a personal preference question. Which graph do you prefer for gathering information
about the length of Hitchcock films—the histogram or stem-and-leaf plot? Briefly state why.
We prefer the histogram because it gives a clear visual overview of the distribution of film
lengths. It's easier to spot patterns, trends, and outliers compared to a stem-and-leaf plot,
making it more intuitive for understanding the data.
Exercise 2
Below are stem-and-leaf plots of n = 40 Statistics Exam 1 scores. One plot uses an increment of
10 and the other uses an increment of 5, where the increment indicates the difference in value
between stems.
What is revealed about the data by the second stem-and-leaf plot (with an increment of 5) that
is not visibly apparent in the first stem-and-leaf plot (with an increment of 10)?
What does the second stem-and-leaf plot (with an increment of 5) reveal about the data that is
not visibly apparent in the first stem-and-leaf plot (with an increment of 10)?
There are no test scores in the range of 75 to 79, inclusive.
Exercise 3
(a) How many teams had salaries of at least 70 million dollars?
11 teams had salaries of at least 70 million dollars.
(b) What is the median team salary for the 30 NBA teams?
Since there are 30 teams, then the median is the average of the 15th and 16th data points.
Thus, the median team salary is 67.5 million dollars.
Exercise 4
(a) Construct a histogram in Minitab of your professor’s commute times.
(b) The 21st commute time, 37.4 minutes, reflects a day when your professor left home without
his laptop computer and had to turn around to retrieve it. Remove this outlier from the data
set and reconstruct the histogram.
(c) How many days did your professor’s commute time fall between 18 minutes (inclusive) and
18.5 minutes (exclusive); i.e. 18 ≤ commute time < 18.5?
There were 11 days when the professor's commute time was only between 18 (inclusive)
and 18.5 minutes (exclusive).
Exercise 5
(a) Construct a histogram of this data using cutpoints.
(b) What type of skewness, if any, does this data display?
The data is positively skewed to the right since its tail is more pronounced on the right
side than on the left.
(c) Calculate for each data value and put the new transformed data values in a new
column in Minitab.
You will notice the transformed data begins with the following values:
(d) Construct a histogram of the transformed data using cutpoints.
(e) What is the effect of the transformation on the data?
The original data was skewed to the right, but after transformation, it is now more evenly
distributed and looks like a normal distribution.
