Standard Deviation Question

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Standard Deviation Question

by OneTwoThreeFour » Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:28 pm
From GMAT Club:

E is a collection of four ODD integers and the greatest difference between any two integers in E is 4. The standard deviation of E must be one of how many numbers?
(A) 3
(B) 4
(C) 5
(D) 6
(E) 7

Answer b

My question:

The way I solved this question was choosing two random odd integers in which the range is 4. I used 1 and 5:

1.) 1115
2.) 1335
3.) 1135
4.) 1315
5.) 1355
6.) 1155
7.) 1555

I then found the average of each set and calculated how far apart each individual number is from the mean of each set:
1.) 1,1,1,3
2.) 2,0,0,2
3.) 1.5, 1.5, .5, 2.5
4.) 1.5, .5, 1.5, 2.5
5.) 2.5, .5, 1.5, 1.5
6.) 2,2,2,2
7.) 3,111

Set 1 and set 7; set 3, set 4, and set 5, all have exactly the same absolute differences in mean. Set 1 and set 7, set 3 and set 5 are also reflexive of each other. Despite the fact that set 4 is not reflexive from set 3 and set 5, it still has the same standard deviation as set 3 and set 5 right?

(Set 4 wasn't explained as part of the solution in the original post on GMAT Club. For more information you can go to https://gmatclub.com/forum/hard-standard ... 99774.html)
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by Night reader » Fri Mar 18, 2011 7:59 pm
what's the difference between two sets containing {1135} and {1315}?

Let me first solve this problem on my own.
E is a set of odd integers. The greatest deviation between any two integers in E is 4.
Spatially several cases come to my mind - equally-spaced by 2 and 4

and I wouldn't calculate SD right away - put mean-value difference for comparing any finding duplication

1,1,3,5, mean=2.5 [1.5, 1.5, 0.5, 2.5]
1,3,3,5, mean=3 [2, 0, 0, 2]
1,3,5,5, mean=3.5 [2.5, 0.5, 1.5, 1.5]

1,1,1,5, mean=2 [1, 1, 1, 3]
3,3,3,5, mean=3.5 [0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 1.5]
5,5,5,1, mean=4 [1, 1, 1, 3]

answer 4 and choice B

I am sure there's more effective way for doing this problem ...




OneTwoThreeFour wrote:From GMAT Club:

E is a collection of four ODD integers and the greatest difference between any two integers in E is 4. The standard deviation of E must be one of how many numbers?
(A) 3
(B) 4
(C) 5
(D) 6
(E) 7

Answer b

My question:

The way I solved this question was choosing two random odd integers in which the range is 4. I used 1 and 5:

1.) 1115
2.) 1335
3.) 1135
4.) 1315
5.) 1355
6.) 1155
7.) 1555

I then found the average of each set and calculated how far apart each individual number is from the mean of each set:
1.) 1,1,1,3
2.) 2,0,0,2
3.) 1.5, 1.5, .5, 2.5
4.) 1.5, .5, 1.5, 2.5
5.) 2.5, .5, 1.5, 1.5
6.) 2,2,2,2
7.) 3,111

Set 1 and set 7; set 3, set 4, and set 5, all have exactly the same absolute differences in mean. Set 1 and set 7, set 3 and set 5 are also reflexive of each other. Despite the fact that set 4 is not reflexive from set 3 and set 5, it still has the same standard deviation as set 3 and set 5 right?

(Set 4 wasn't explained as part of the solution in the original post on GMAT Club. For more information you can go to https://gmatclub.com/forum/hard-standard ... 99774.html)
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