NAME _________

Name Date Reteach

10.5
Make a Box-and-Whisker Plot
Use the following data to make a box-and-whisker plot.
14, 21, 19, 12, 13, 24, 26, 19, 15, 25, 19

Step 1: Order the data from least to greatest.

Step 2: Circle the median. Then find the upper and lower quartiles. Imagine breaking
the data set into two parts at the median. The quartiles are the medians of the two parts.

Step 3: Circle the extremes — the greatest and least values of the data set.

Step 4: Draw a number line that includes all of the numbers in the data set. Above the line,
draw points for the median, quartiles, and extremes.

Step 5: Draw a box that begins at the lower quartile and ends at the upper quartile.
Draw a line through the box at the median.

Step 6: Draw whiskers from both ends of the box. The whiskers end at the extremes.

• • • • •

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

lower lower median upper upper

extreme quartile quartile extreme

Use the data set below for Problems 1–6.

58, 71, 51, 67, 58, 55, 53, 57, 58, 62, 65
1. What is the median of the data set?

2. What are the upper and lower quartiles?

3. What are the extremes of the data set?

4. Draw a box-and-whisker plot to display the data.

5. How much of the data are in the box?

6. How much of the data are in the whiskers?

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Use with text pages 246–247.
Name Date Reteach
10.6
Box-and-Whisker Plots
Maria recorded the number of days it rained or Days of Rain or Snow
snowed each month during the past year. This
box-and-whisker plot displays her data.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The extremes tell you

• the least number of days it rained or snowed in a month was 2.
• the greatest number of days it rained or snowed in a month was 10.

The median tells you

1
• ᎏᎏ of the months had over 6 days of rain or snow.
2
1
• ᎏᎏ of the months had fewer than 6 days of rain or snow.
2

The data clusters tell you

1
• ᎏᎏ of the data clusters between 2 and 3 days.
4
1
• ᎏᎏ of the data clusters between 6 and 7 days.
4

Use the box-and-whisker plot below for Problems 1–5.

Baskets Made

5 10 15
1. What are the least and greatest number of baskets made?
2. What is the median number of baskets made?
3. What are the upper and lower quartiles for the data?
4. Where are the data clustered?
5. What do the extremes tell you about the number of baskets made?

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Use with text pages 248–249.
Name Date Homework
10.6
Box-and-Whisker Plots

How to Interpret a Box-and-Whisker Plot

Ask yourself:
• Where do I find the quartiles?

• What do the lengths of the whiskers and box parts mean?

Use the box-and-whisker plot for Problems 1–8.

box
whisker whisker

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50

1. What is the lower extreme?

2. What is the lower quartile?

3. What is the median of the data set?

4. What is the upper quartile?

5. What is the upper extreme?

6. What is the range between the lower and upper quartile?

7. For what range are the data most clustered?

8. For what range are the data most spread out?

Problem Solving
Show Your Work
9. Write a set of 15 scores that this box-and-
whisker plot could represent.

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Use with text pages 248–249.
Name Date Practice
10.6
Box-and-Whisker Plots
Use the box-and-whisker plot for Problems 1–8.

Number of Minutes Needed to Read a Chapter

10 20 30 40 50

1. What is the lower extreme?

2. What is the upper extreme?

3. What is the median?

4. What is the lower quartile?

5. What is the upper quartile?

6. What is the range between the lower and upper quartile?

7. For what range are the data most clustered?

8. For what range are the data most spread out?

Test Prep

10. Which number could you not read from 11. How could you identify an outlier from a
a box-and-whisker plot? box-and-whisker plot?

A the median C the range

B the mean D the upper quartile

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Use with text pages 248–249.
Name Date Problem
Solving
Box-and-Whisker Plots 10.6
Use the box-and-whisker plot to solve.

Length of Best Picture Winners (minutes)

90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230

Show Your Work

1. The shortest film to win an Academy
Award® for Best Picture was Marty, which
won the award in 1955. How long was
this movie?

2. Is the median time for Best Picture winners

greater or less than two hours? By how
much?

3. One film reviewer looked at this box-and-

whisker chart and wrote, “About 25% of
all Best Picture winners are more than
2 hours 41 minutes long.” Do you agree?
Why or why not?

4. Cleon wants to find out what running time

is shared by the most Best Picture winners.
Can he use this box-and-whisker plot to
find an answer? Why or why not?

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Use with text pages 248–249.
Name Date Homework
10.5
Make a Box-and-Whisker Plot

How to Make a Box-and-Whisker Plot

Step 1: Order the data from least to greatest and find the median.
Step 2: Find the upper and lower quartiles, or the medians of each half of the data set.
Step 3: Find the extremes, or the greatest value and the least value in the data set.
Step 4: Draw a number line that begins with the least value and ends with the greatest value
in the data set.
Step 5: Plot a point at the median, upper quartile, lower quartile, and extremes.
Step 6: Draw a box using the lower and upper quartiles as sides. Then draw a vertical line
segment through the median.
Step 7: Draw a horizontal line from the lower extreme to the lower quartile. Draw another
horizontal line from the upper quartile to the upper extreme.

Use the data set for Problems 1–5.

29, 35, 28, 33, 38, 29, 29, 30, 31, 29, 27

1. Order the data from least to greatest and find the median.
2. What are the upper and lower quartiles?
3. What are the extremes?
4. Make a box-and-whisker plot to display the data.

Problem Solving
Show Your Work
5. In a box-and-whisker plot, what fraction of
the data set is included in the box? in the
two whiskers?

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Use with text pages 246–247.
Name Date Practice
10.5
Make a Box-and-Whisker Plot
Make a box-and-whisker plot for each set of data.

1. 15, 21, 16, 15, 14, 8, 16, 15, 15, 17, 18, 14

2. 100, 110, 110, 120, 90, 130, 90, 100, 110, 110, 120, 110, 90, 40, 130

3. 1, 9, 17, 12, 10, 15, 14, 15, 24, 16, 14

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Use with text pages 246–247.
 NAME ________________________________________ DATE ______________ PERIOD _____

Study Guide and Intervention

Box-and-Whisker Plots
A box-and-whisker plot is a diagram that divides data into four equal parts. To do this, first find the
median of the data, and then find the median of the lower half, called the lower quartile, and the
median of the upper half, called the upper quartile.

Make a box-and-whisker plot of the data below.

12, 23, 6, 17, 9, 10, 19, 7, 11, 15, 7, 12, 13, 20

Step 1 Order the data from least to greatest. 6, 7, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 23

{
{
Step 2 Find the median and the quartiles.
median: 12
Step 3 Draw a number line and graph the lower quartile: upper quartile:
values you found in Step 2 as points median of lower half
9 median of upper half
17
above the line. Also graph the least
value (lower extreme) and the
greatest value (upper extreme).
Step 4 Draw the box and whiskers. 5 10 15 20 25

Make a box-and-whisker plot for each set of data.

1. 15, 16, 7, 8, 5, 5, 3, 4, 8, 2. 4, 6, 3, 7, 10, 11, 4, 5, 6, 2, 7
12, 10, 9, 6, 13

2 4 6 8 10 12
3 5 7 9 11 13 15

3. 1, 5, 2, 2, 6, 3, 7 4. 8, 2, 7, 4, 12, 8, 11

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 2 4 6 8 10 12

5. 17, 22, 11, 11, 11, 10, 19, 6. 3, 5, 1, 4, 2, 4, 3, 5, 2, 1

18, 16, 11, 18

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
10 12 16 18 20 20 22

© Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 92 Mathematics: Applications and Concepts, Course 2

 NAME ________________________________________ DATE ______________ PERIOD _____

Practice: Skills
Box-and-Whisker Plots
SPORTS For Exercises 1–6, refer to the table at the right. It Number of
shows the regular season games lost by each professional Losses
baseball team in the National League in 2001. 74 76 80 86
1. Find the lower extreme, LQ, median, UQ, and upper extreme. 69 69 74 94
100 70 72 76
89 94 96 83

2. Draw a box-and-whisker plot of the data.

Lesson 2–6
65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100

3. What fraction of the data is between 73 and 78?

4. Between what two numbers is the largest range of the four quartiles?

5. Find the interquartile range.

6. Are there any outliers? If so, identify them.

Life Span (yr)
5 12 4 3 12
12 6 5 8 35
LIFE SCIENCE For Exercises 7–12, refer to the table at the right.
It shows average life spans of 21 mammals. 7 8 12 10 12
10 3 7 1 12
7. Find the lower extreme, LQ, median, UQ, and upper extreme. 10

8. Draw a box-and-whisker plot of the data.

1 6 11 16 21 26 31 35

9. What fraction of the data is between 5 and 12?

10. Find the interquartile range.

11. What are the limits on outliers?

12. Are there any outliers? If so, identify them.

© Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 93 Mathematics: Applications and Concepts, Course 2

 NAME ________________________________________ DATE ______________ PERIOD _____

Practice: Word Problems

Box-and-Whisker Plots
SOCCER For Exercises 1–6, use the table below. It shows the number of
wins in a recent major league soccer season.

Major League Soccer Wins

16 13 7 8 10 4
14 13 11 5 16 13

1. Find the lower extreme, LQ, median, 2. Construct a box-and-whisker plot of the
UQ, and upper extreme. data in the table.

3. What fraction of the data is greater 4. What fraction of the data is between
than 7.5? 7.5 and 13.5?

5. Determine the interquartile range. 6 6. Use the interquartile range to

determine the limits for the outliers.
Are there any outliers?

© Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 94 Mathematics: Applications and Concepts, Course 2