634 Chapter 16 Business Statistics
D. Additional Exercises
- In Exercise 5, we asked if a comparison of standard deviations suggests that one company’s light bulbs have more
consistent durability than the others. Why can’t we say for sure which company’s bulbs are more consistent? - Suppose that you are doing a comparison study of retail prices at different pharmacies in a metropolitan area. You
collect prices for 500 count bottles of aspirin, and also for a 3-month prescription for an expensive medication. The
results are shown below:
Pharmacy Aspirin Price Prescription CostA $1.79 $871.79
B $4.79 $874.79
C $5.79 $875.79
D $7.79 $877.79a. Without doing any calculations, which of these two products would you say has the greatest variation in prices?
b. Calculate the standard deviation for each product’s prices.
c. What does this tell you about comparing standard deviations?