Question

The following dot plot shows the number of cavities each of Dr. Vance's 63 patients had last month. Each dot represents a different patient. Which of the following is a typical number of cavities one patient had?

Answer 1

Answer:

$The$ $answer$ $is$ $2$                                                        

Step-by-step explanation:

There are lots of ways we can think about the typical number of cavities.

• What was the most common number of cavities?

• If we split the cavities evenly among all the patients, how many cavities would each patient have?

• What would be the balance point of the data?

• What is the middlemost number of cavities?  

The most patients had 0 cavities.  

If we split the cavities evenly, each patient would have 2 or 3 cavities.  

If we put our dot plot on a balance scale, it would balance when the pivot was between 2 and 3 cavities.

The scale would tip if, for example, we put the pivot at 5 cavities.

There are 8 patients with 2 cavities each. About half of the rest of the patients have fewer than 2 cavities and about half have more than 2 cavities.

Of the choices, it is reasonable to say that a patient typically had about 2 cavities.

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