Find the median, the quartiles, and the extremes. EXAMPLE 1 Making a Box-and-Whisker Plot Roller Coasters The heights, in feet, of 10 suspended roller coasters in the United States are 35, 42, 42.5, 60, 60, 70, 76, 78, 81, and 100. Make a box-and-whisker plot of the data. SOLUTION STEP 1 Find the median, the quartiles, and the extremes.
Plot the five values below a number line. EXAMPLE 1 Making a Box-and-Whisker Plot STEP 2 Plot the five values below a number line. STEP 3 Draw a box connecting the quartiles. STEP 4 Draw a vertical line through the median. STEP 5 Draw “whiskers” from the box to both extremes
EXAMPLE 2 Interpreting a Box-and-Whisker Plot Watches The prices of the watches at a store are summarized in the box-and-whisker plot below. a. Suppose all of the watches under $31 are on clearance.About what fraction of the watches are on clearance? b. Suppose all of the watches from $31 to $71 are on sale. About what fraction of the watches are on sale?
EXAMPLE 2 Interpreting a Box-and-Whisker Plot SOLUTION a. The watches less than $31 are about the same as the number in one of the whiskers, which represents about one quarter of the watches. b. The watches between $31 and $71 are about the same as the number in the large box of the plot, which represents about half of the watches.
GUIDED PRACTICE for Examples 1 and 2 1. One weekend, a theater sold the following numbers of tickets to each screening of a new movie. Make a box-and-whisker plot of the data. 497, 429, 746, 469, 504, 464, 326, 302, 509, 467, 401, 499 302 415 501.5 746 468 300 400 500 600 700 800
GUIDED PRACTICE 2. What If? for Examples 1 and 2 2. What If? In Example 2, suppose all of the watches under $45 were on clearance. About what fraction of the watches are on clearance? ANSWER 50%
GUIDED PRACTICE for Examples 1 and 2 3. In Example 2, is the number of watches between $71 and $120 greater than the number of watches between $16 and $31? Explain. ANSWER No , it should be the same because the watches between $71 and $120 represent about 25% of the watches and the watches between $16 and $31 also represent about 25% of the watches.