Question

The stemplot below represents the number of bite-size snacks grabbed by 32 students in an activity for a statistics class.

A stemplot titled Number of Snacks has values 15, 15, 16, 16, 16, 17, 17, 18, 18, 18, 18, 19, 19, 20, 20, 20, 21, 21, 21, 22, 22, 23, 23, 27, 29, 29, 29, 32, 32, 34, 38, 42.

Which of the following best describes the shape of this distribution?

skewed to the left
bimodal symmetric
skewed to the right
unimodal symmetric

Answer 1

Answer: The stemplot shows that the distribution is unimodal and skewed to the right.

The stem values (tens digits) are:

1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4

The leaf values (ones digits) are:

5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 9, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 7, 9, 9, 9, 2, 2, 4, 8, 2

The data is unimodal because there is one clear peak in the distribution. The data is skewed to the right because the long tail of the distribution extends to the right, with a few large values pulling the mean to the right.

Therefore, the best description of the shape of this distribution is skewed to the right.