Suppose I Want to Know How Many Household Pets Americans

Essay

Suppose I want to know how many household pets Americans have owned in their lifetimes before they turn 30 years old. I select a sample of 3 Americans, each of whom is 30 years old, and ask them how many pets they have owned in their lifetimes. The first person I ask has owned 6 animals, the second person has owned 2, and the third person has owned 11. Please answer the following questions based on these data.
a. Calculate and report the standard deviation for this distribution, then wrap words around it. What does it tell you?
b. When calculating the standard deviation, you had to decide whether to use N or n - 1 in the denominator. Which did you use, and why?
c. When calculating the standard deviation, you had to produce a sum of the squared deviations. Please report that number, tell me how you calculated it, and tell me what it means.
d. Calculate and report the range for this distribution. Please show me how you calculated the range.