“The NBA is a big man’s game.

Average height for the league is about 6 feet 7 inches, with guards averaging 6 ft 4 in, forwards averaging 6 ft 9 in and centers 7 feet,” as reported in a USA Snapshot in April 2004.

Basketball players are typically divided into three groups: guards, forwards, and centers. For many reasons, as most know and understand, “the guards are usually the shortest and the centers are typically the tallest.” A random sample of 2005 NBA players was selected, and each player’s height was recorded to nearest inch.

Guards Forwards Centers Guards Forwards Centers 78 81 84 73 81 83 74 84 90 72 82 87 78 80 83 80 80 84 74 84 83 80 77 82 85 Source: NBA.com

a. Do you expect to find the mean heights for the three positions to be different from each other?

Do you expect to find more variation between the positions or within the positions? Explain.

b. Construct a side-by-side graph (dotplot, boxplot, other) of your choice. Describe the data pattern shown.

c. Does the graph in part b show a relative large amount of variability between the positions?

Explain, in detail, what you can determine from the graph.

d. Is there a significant difference in the heights of NBA players by position? Use   0.05.

e. Do the results found in part d confirm your answer to part c? Explain.

f. Are the results what you anticipated they would be? Explain why or why not.