Question

A study examined the induction time between bacterial meningitis and the onset of seizures in 13 cases (months). Data are shown here:

0.10       0.25       4             0.5         12               24          12          24          31               36          42          96          55

When compare the mean and the median of this data set, what does this tell you about the shape of the distribution?

	A.	There is a negative skew
	B.	The distribution is symmetrical
	C.	There is a positive skew
	D.	The distribution is uniform

Answer 1

Here mean value is

The median is the middle number in a sorted list of numbers. So, to find the median, we need to place the numbers in value order and find the middle number.

Ordering the data from least to greatest, we get:

0.10   0.25   0.5   4   12   12   24   24   31   36   42   55   96   

So, the median is 24 .

Here we see that mean is greater than median, which means distribution is right-skewed.

Hence answer here is

c. There is a positive skew