S1 June 2011 Q5

EdexcelOld spec11 marksData Processing

5. A class of students had a sudoku competition. The time taken for each student to complete the sudoku was recorded to the nearest minute and the results are summarised in the table below.

TimeMid-point, \(x\)Frequency, f
2 - 852
9 - 127
13 - 15145
16 - 18178
19 - 2220.54
23 - 3026.54

(You may use \(\sum \mathrm{f}x^2 = 8603.75\))

(a) Write down the mid-point for the 9 - 12 interval. (1)
(b) Use linear interpolation to estimate the median time taken by the students. (2)
(c) Estimate the mean and standard deviation of the times taken by the students. (5)

The teacher suggested that a normal distribution could be used to model the times taken by the students to complete the sudoku.

(d) Give a reason to support the use of a normal distribution in this case. (1)

On another occasion the teacher calculated the quartiles for the times taken by the students to complete a different sudoku and found

\[Q_1 = 8.5 \qquad Q_2 = 13.0 \qquad Q_3 = 21.0\]
(e) Describe, giving a reason, the skewness of the times on this occasion. (2)