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so all I know is that: n=100. i have 5 departments within the numbers: 0-1000.

md = 500. avg =490. lower decile=200. upper quarter=600.

I really don't know how to use the formulas of each if I don't have any data.(fx,Fx etc)

enter image description here

notice: this chart is filled by the correct answers(2. 15 = box 2, the answer is 15), how to i get to them?

1 Answers1

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Presumably $md$ is the median, so that tells you that $50$ are below that and $50$ are above. The lower decile tells you that $10\%$ or $10$ are less than $200$, so that fills in one of your boxes directly. The upper quarter being $600$ means that there are $25$ in the bottom two boxes together. I don't think you have enough data to get all five boxes, but the mean being $490$ means there need to be a lot in the $200-400$ box to pull it down.

Given the answer, I think I can see how you are supposed to solve it. I think it is a terrible problem and you should demand your money back. Let the five numbers be $a,b,c,d,e$ in order. The fact that $n=100$ tells you that $a+b+c+d+e=100$. This is fine. The fact that the median is $50$ is supposed to tell you that $a+b=d+e$, but there are many distributions with median of $50$ where this is not true. To use the statement that the average is $490$, you are supposed to assume that all the ones in the $400-600$ box are at $500$, or at least that the set in the box averages to $500$, and likewise for the other boxes. This is a reasonable way to approximate the average if this data is all you have, but you don't know it is right. This gives you $(100a+300b+500c+700d+900e)/1000=490$ The lower decile of $200$ tells you $a=10$. This is fine. The upper quarter being $600$ tells you that $d+e=25$. This is fine. You now have five equations in five unknowns to solve. Presumably the $F(x)$ column is the cumulative distribution, so each box sums the $f(x)$ boxes above and next to it.

Ross Millikan
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  • so, I edited this chart using the correct answers. how do i get to box 2,3? because after that it can be easier to fill. – Noy Sapir Nov 15 '14 at 14:41
  • wow, thank you very much! can you explain me why d+e=25? I didn't understand it. – Noy Sapir Nov 15 '14 at 16:20
  • Because you are told the upper quarter is $600$. The contents of $d$ and $e$ together are all the things above $600$, so need to be one quarter of the total. – Ross Millikan Nov 15 '14 at 16:24