Calculate the Range.

Calculate the Range.

• A. Highest value in the data set minus the lowest value in the data set
• B. Highest value minus the sum of others
• C. Standard deviation
• D. Interquartile Range

Answer: (A)

Range measures how spread out a data set is by looking at the gap between its smallest and largest values. This is found by subtracting the minimum value from the maximum value. So the correct approach is the largest value minus the smallest value. For example, in a set like 3, 7, 12, the range is 12 − 3 = 9. The other concepts describe different ways to quantify spread: standard deviation averages how far data points are from the mean; the interquartile range uses the middle 50% of the data; and subtracting the sum of the others from the largest value isn’t a standard measure of dispersion.

Range measures how spread out a data set is by looking at the gap between its smallest and largest values. This is found by subtracting the minimum value from the maximum value. So the correct approach is the largest value minus the smallest value. For example, in a set like 3, 7, 12, the range is 12 − 3 = 9. The other concepts describe different ways to quantify spread: standard deviation averages how far data points are from the mean; the interquartile range uses the middle 50% of the data; and subtracting the sum of the others from the largest value isn’t a standard measure of dispersion.