The US local airport keeps track of the percentage of flights arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrivals.The stem-and-leaf plot of the data for one year is below. What would be the class length for creating the frequency histogram?
A)1.4
B)0.8
C)2.7
D)1.7
E)2.3

Question

The US local airport keeps track of the percentage of flights arriving within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrivals.The stem-and-leaf plot of the data for one year is below.  What would be the class length for creating the frequency histogram?
A)1.4 
B)0.8 
C)2.7 
D)1.7 
E)2.3

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

To find the appropriate class length for a frequency histogram, we need to subtract the smallest value from the largest value and divide by the desired number of classes. The stem-and-leaf plot ranges from 40 to 90, so the range is 50. If we want the class length to be 6 (which is a common choice for this type of data), then we divide 50 by 6, which is approximately 8.3. Since we want a whole number for the class length, the best choice is D, which is 1.7 (i.e. 8.3 rounded up to the nearest whole number).

The US Local Airport Keeps Track of the Percentage of Flights