3/24/2017 Stats:MeasuresofPosition

Stats:MeasuresofPosition

StandardScores(zscores)
Thestandardscoreisobtainedbysubtractingthemeananddividingthedifferencebythestandarddeviation.
Thesymbolisz,whichiswhyit'salsocalledazscore.

Themeanofthestandardscoresiszeroandthestandarddeviationis1.Thisisthenicefeatureofthestandard
scorenomatterwhattheoriginalscalewas,whenthedataisconvertedtoitsstandardscore,themeaniszero
andthestandarddeviationis1.

Percentiles,Deciles,Quartiles
Percentiles(100regions)

Thekthpercentileisthenumberwhichhask%ofthevaluesbelowit.Thedatamustberanked.

1.Rankthedata
2.Findk%(k/100)ofthesamplesize,n.
3.Ifthisisaninteger,add0.5.Ifitisn'tanintegerroundup.
4.Findthenumberinthisposition.Ifyourdepthendsin0.5,thentakethemidpointbetweenthetwo
numbers.

Itissometimeseasiertocountfromthehighendratherthancountingfromthelowend.Forexample,the80th
percentileisthenumberwhichhas80%belowitand20%aboveit.Ratherthancounting80%fromthebottom,
count20%fromthetop.

Note:The50thpercentileisthemedian.

Ifyouwishtofindthepercentileforanumber(ratherthanlocatingthekthpercentile),then

1.Takethenumberofvaluesbelowthenumber
2.Add0.5
3.Dividebythetotalnumberofvalues
4.Convertittoapercent

Deciles(10regions)
Thepercentilesdividethedatainto100equalregions.Thedecilesdividethedatainto10equalregions.The
instructionsarethesameforfindingapercentile,exceptinsteadofdividingby100instep2,divideby10.

Quartiles(4regions)

Thequartilesdividethedatainto4equalregions.Insteadofdividingby100instep2,divideby4.

https://people.richland.edu/james/lecture/m170/ch03pos.html 1/3
3/24/2017 Stats:MeasuresofPosition

Note:The2ndquartileisthesameasthemedian.The1stquartileisthe25thpercentile,the3rdquartileisthe
75thpercentile.

Thequartilesarecommonlyused(muchmoresothanthepercentilesordeciles).TheTI82calculatorwillfind
thequartilesforyou.Sometextbooksincludethequartilesinthefivenumbersummary.

Hinges
Thelowerhingeisthemedianofthelowerhalfofthedatauptoandincludingthemedian.Theupperhingeis
themedianoftheupperhalfofthedatauptoandincludingthemedian.

Thehingesarethesameasthequartilesunlesstheremainderwhendividingthesamplesizebyfouristhree
(like39/4=9R3).

Thestatementaboutthelowerhalforupperhalfincludingthemediantendstobeconfusingtosomestudents.If
themedianissplitbetweentwovalues(whichhappenswheneverthesamplesizeiseven),themedianisn't
includedineithersincethemedianisn'tactuallypartofthedata.

Example1:samplesizeof20

Themedianwillbeinposition10.5.Thelowerhalfispositions110andtheupperhalfispositions1120.
Thelowerhingeisthemedianofthelowerhalfandwouldbeinposition5.5.Theupperhingeisthemedianof
theupperhalfandwouldbeinposition5.5startingwithoriginalposition11asposition1thisistheoriginal
position15.5.

Example2:samplesizeof21

Themedianisinposition11.Thelowerhalfispositions111andtheupperhalfispositions1121.Thelower
hingeisthemedianofthelowerhalfandwouldbeinposition6.Theupperhingeisthemedianoftheupperhalf
andwouldbeinposition6whenstartingatposition11thisisoriginalposition16.

FiveNumberSummary
Thefivenumbersummaryconsistsoftheminimumvalue,lowerhinge,median,upperhinge,andmaximum
value.Sometextbooksusethequartilesinsteadofthehinges.

BoxandWhiskersPlot
Agraphicalrepresentationofthefivenumbersummary.Aboxisdrawnbetweenthelowerandupperhinges
withalineatthemedian.Whiskers(asingleline,notabox)extendfromthehingestolinesattheminimumand
maximumvalues.

InterquartileRange(IQR)
Theinterquartilerangeisthedifferencebetweenthethirdandfirstquartiles.That'sit:Q3Q1

Outliers

https://people.richland.edu/james/lecture/m170/ch03pos.html 2/3
3/24/2017 Stats:MeasuresofPosition

Outliersareextremevalues.Therearemildoutliersandextremeoutliers.TheBlumantextdoesnotdistinguish
betweenmildoutliersandextremeoutliersandjusttreatseitherasanoutlier.

ExtremeOutliers
Extremeoutliersareanydatavalueswhichliemorethan3.0timestheinterquartilerangebelowthefirstquartile
orabovethethirdquartile.xisanextremeoutlierif...

x<Q13*IQR

or

x>Q3+3*IQR

MildOutliers

Mildoutliersareanydatavalueswhichliebetween1.5timesand3.0timestheinterquartilerangebelowthe
firstquartileorabovethethirdquartile.xisamildoutlierif...

Q13*IQR<=x<Q11.5*IQR

or

Q1+1.5*IQR<x<=Q3+3*IQR

TableofContents

https://people.richland.edu/james/lecture/m170/ch03pos.html 3/3