Percentiles are positional measures used to indicate the position of an individual in a group.

Percentiles are often used in education and health-related fields. For example, they are often found in test
scores, height, and weight. Percentiles are NOT the same as Percentages.

Percentiles, Px, divide a set of data into 100 equal parts.

P1 = 1st percentile
P10 = 10th percentile
P50 = 50th percentile = the median

To find the position number in a data set, use this formula: Px = x(n+1)/100

Quartiles are positional measures that divide a set of data into 4 equal parts.

Deciles are positional measures that divide a set of data into 10 equal parts.

Example
Many people consider the number of calories in an ice-cream bar as important as cost when deciding which
product to buy. The following data lists the number of calories in 22 manufactures fudge-flavored ice-cream
bars. Note that the bars varied in size and, thus, some of the smaller bars had fewer calories.

111 131 147 151 151 179 182 190

197 201 209 234 286 294 295 310

319 337 353 377 377 439

Please show your work!

a) Calculate the median.

b) Calculate the first quartile.

c) Calculate the third quartile.

d) Calculate the 4th decile.

Ordered data set: 190 310

111 197 319
131 201 337
147 209 353
151 234 377
151 286 377
179 294 439
182 295
a) Median = P50 = 50 (22+1)/100 = 11.5
Find the 11.5th value when the data set is ordered.
Calculate 11th value + 0.5(12th item 11th item).

Discuss the answers the following questions in groups of three or four and be prepared to share them with the
class:
1) Imagine Dr. Jones gave you back your test and instead of writing your score, he wrote your z-
score. What type of z-score would you want to see? What does a positive z-score mean? What does a
negative z-score mean? What does a z-score of zero mean?
2) What if we measured everyone in class and assigned everyone a z-score based on their height? What
type of z-score would you prefer? What would the worst possible z-score be? What would that look
like?

Three pieces of data we can collect:

1) How many letters are in your first name?
2) How many sports do you play?
3) How many tacos can you eat in one sitting?

Deviation just means how far from the normal. To figure out standard deviation for List 1: 2, 3, 5, 1, 4, follow
these easy steps and please show your work:

1. Work out the mean (the simple average of the numbers).

2. Then, for each number, subtract the mean and square the result.
3. Then, work out the mean of those squared differences.
4. Take the square root of that, and you are done!

(mean = 3) 2-3=-11 3-3=00 5-3=24 1-3=-24 4-3=11 1+0+4+4+1=10/5=2 square root of 2=1.414

To figure out standard deviation from your calculator, follow these steps:

Standard deviation can be calculated using several methods on the TI-83 family and TI-84 Plus family graphing
calculators. Standard deviation can be calculated by using the stdDev() function.

Press [2nd][LIST]
Scroll to MATH and select 7:stdDev(

Follow the example listed below to calculate standard deviation of one list of data:

Ex. Find the standard deviation of the data list.

List1: 2,3,5,1,4

Press [2nd], [LIST], scroll to MATH and select 7:stdDev(

Press [2nd] [(] [2] [,] [3] [,] [5] [,] [1] [,] [4] [2nd] [)] [)]
The screen should now display 'stdDev({2,3,5,1,4})'
Press [ENTER] and the standard deviation of the list will be displayed