Which of the following is the percentage of observations you would expect to see lying within a plus or minus 3 MAD range?
A) 57.05 percent
B) 88.95 percent
C) 98.36 percent
D) 99.85 percent
E) 100 percent

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

MAD (mean absolute deviation) is a measure of variability that is calculated by taking the absolute value of the differences between each data point and the mean, and then finding the average of those absolute differences. If a distribution is approximately normal, we can use the Empirical Rule to estimate the percentage of observations that fall within a certain number of MADs from the mean. According to the Empirical Rule:

- Approximately 68% of the observations lie within plus or minus 1 MAD from the mean
- Approximately 95% of the observations lie within plus or minus 2 MADs from the mean
- Approximately 99.7% of the observations lie within plus or minus 3 MADs from the mean

Therefore, if we assume a normal distribution and use the Empirical Rule, we can estimate that approximately 99.7% of the observations would lie within a plus or minus 3 MAD range. This corresponds to Choice C.

Which of the Following Is the Percentage of Observations You