What does range tell you

When a data set has outliers, variability is often summarized by a statistic called the interquartile range , which is the difference between the first and third quartiles. The quartiles can be determined following the same approach that we used to determine the median, but we now consider each half of the data set separately.

The interquartile range is defined as follows:. The quartiles can be determined in the same way we determined the median, except we consider each half of the data set separately. There are 5 values below the median lower half , the middle value is 64 which is the first quartile. There are 5 values above the median upper half , the middle value is 77 which is the third quartile.

When the sample size is odd, the median and quartiles are determined in the same way. The median and quartiles are indicated below. When the sample size is 9, the median is the middle number First, order the values from low to high to identify the lowest value L and the highest value H.

The range generally gives you a good indicator of variability when you have a distribution without extreme values. When paired with measures of central tendency , the range can tell you about the span of the distribution. But the range can be misleading when you have outliers in your data set. One extreme value in the data will give you a completely different range.

In the example above, the range indicates much more variability in the data than there actually is. Although we have a large range, most values are actually clustered around a clear middle. Because only two numbers are used, the range is easily influenced by outliers. Scribbr editors not only correct grammar and spelling mistakes, but also strengthen your writing by making sure your paper is free of vague language, redundant words and awkward phrasing.

See editing example. It is the simplest measure of variability. Because the range formula subtracts the lowest number from the highest number, the range is always zero or a positive number. Retrieved Oct 26, from Explorable. The text in this article is licensed under the Creative Commons-License Attribution 4. That is it. You can use it freely with some kind of link , and we're also okay with people reprinting in publications like books, blogs, newsletters, course-material, papers, wikipedia and presentations with clear attribution.

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What is a range of data? What a sentence use the word range in it? How does the outlier affect the range of a data set? How do you compute data that is not in range? Range of the data? What is the science definition for range? Calculated by subtracting the smallest value in the data set from the largest value in the data set? How could you extend the range of value data represent? What is range data?