The table shows the sizes, in square feet, of a sample of eight houses from a neighborhood. Suppose that, after you have calculated the measures of central tendency, you are told that there was an error and house 5 is really 17,985 square feet. Which of these statistics will change LEAST?

The question is incomplete: the table and the answer choices are missing.

This is the table: 

House     1       2         3          4         5              6           7           8
Size    1025  1288    2344     988   12,985     1500     1077      2455


These are the answer choices:

A) maximum
B) mean
C) median
D) range

Answer: option C) median.

Explanation:


You have to calculate or analyze  every statistics before and after.

A) Máximun.

Before correcting the error, the maximum was 12,985 (the measure of the house 5).

After correcting the error, the new maximum is 17,985 (the corrected measure of house 5). So, this changed 17,985 - 12,985 = 5,000 (square feet).

B) Mean

Increase in the mean = change in the measure / number of houses = 5,000 / 8 = 625 square feet


C) Median


It is the measure of the central data, after they are ordered.


Since, the error only modified the maximum value, the median did not change.

With the error and without the error it is the average of the two central measures: [1288 + 1500] / 2 = 1,394 square feet.

Then, this measure did not change, and this is the right answer.


D) Range:

The range is the difference between the maximum and the minimum data.

Since, the maximum data changed, the range changed.