In the exercises in Chapter 1, we considered the study by a fourth-grade girl who examined the average allowance of her classmates. You may recall that 7 boys reported an average allowance of $3.18, and 11 girls reported an average allowance of $2.63. These data raise some interesting statistical issues. Without in any way diminishing the value of what the fourth-grade student did, let’s look at the data more closely. The article in the paper reported that the highest allowance for a boy was $10, whereas the highest for a girl was $9. It also reported that the girls’ two lowest allowances were $0.50 and $0.51, but the lowest reported allowance for a boy was $3.00.

a. Create a set of data for boys and girls that would produce these results. (No, I did not make an error in reporting the results that were given.)

b. What is the most appropriate measure of central tendency to report in this situation?

c. What does the available information suggest to you about the distribution of allowances for the two genders? What would the means be if we trimmed extreme allowances from each group?