OG Number of packages shipped

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AbeNeedsAnswers: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 394; Joined: Sun Jul 02, 2017 10:59 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 1 times

by AbeNeedsAnswers » Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:19 pm

The table above shows the number of packages shipped daily by each of the five companies during a 4-day period. The standard deviation of the numbers of packages shipped daily during the period was greatest for which of the five companies?

A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E

B

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Thu Aug 17, 2017 7:19 pm

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Jay@ManhattanReview: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3008; Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:19 amFollowed by: 34 members; Location: Grand Central / New York; Thanked: 470 times

by Jay@ManhattanReview » Thu Aug 17, 2017 9:39 pm

AbeNeedsAnswers wrote:

The table above shows the number of packages shipped daily by each of the five companies during a 4-day period. The standard deviation of the numbers of packages shipped daily during the period was greatest for which of the five companies?

A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E

B

Hi AbeNeedsAnswers,

I see that you post far too many questions. While this is okay, you do not first search the forum if the very question is already answered.

It's an irony that you only asked the same question merely 45 days back and I answered it.

https://www.beatthegmat.com/standard-dev ... 95554.html

-Jay
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Manhattan Review GMAT Prep

Locations: New York | Singapore | London | Dubai | and many more...

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Matt@VeritasPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2630; Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2012 3:32 pmFollowed by: 119 members; Location: East Bay all the way; Thanked: 625 times; GMAT Score:780

by Matt@VeritasPrep » Fri Aug 18, 2017 1:34 pm

Jay@ManhattanReview wrote: I see that you post far too many questions. While this is okay

I'm having a hard time reconciling these two statements

I don't mean to goof on Jay, though: I think he's giving excellent advice. Asking a lot of questions is usually a red flag that a student isn't doing enough to work through the questions on his/her own and really learn the material, and it tends to lead to huge trouble on test day, since that understanding (and self-reliance) is absolutely critical to GMAT success.

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Scott@TargetTestPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 8137; Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:56 amFollowed by: 29 members; Location: Los Angeles, CA; Thanked: 43 times

by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Fri Dec 08, 2017 6:39 am

AbeNeedsAnswers wrote:

The table above shows the number of packages shipped daily by each of the five companies during a 4-day period. The standard deviation of the numbers of packages shipped daily during the period was greatest for which of the five companies?

A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E

We are given the number of packages shipped by 5 companies. Let's list those below:

Company A: 45 ,55, 50, 50

Company B: 10, 30, 30, 10

Company C: 34, 28, 28, 30

Company D: 39, 42, 41, 38

Company E: 50, 60, 60, 70

We may recall the the standard deviation represents how far the data points are from the mean. It's not necessary to calculate the standard deviations of any of the data sets. Let's "eyeball" the list instead. We see that the data points of Companies B and E are most spread apart. Thus, the largest standard deviation will come from either Company B or Company E.

Let's calculate the mean (arithmetic average) for Company B and E.

Mean of Company B = (10 + 30 + 30 + 10)/4 = 80/4 = 20

For Company B, we see that the distances of the data points are 10, 10, 10, and 10, respectively, from the mean. (Note that we don't care about the + or - signs of those distances.)

Mean of Company E = (50 + 60 + 60 + 70)/4 = 240/4 = 60

We see that the distances of the data points are 10, 0, 0, and 10, respectively, from the mean.

Thus, company B has a greater standard deviation than company E and hence the greatest standard deviation of the 5 companies.

Answer: B

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
[email protected]

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