Question

I give medals! helpppp!
I am given a set of data (one for mens 2013 400 meter championship).
The question asks, suppose the timing device for the mens race failed to activate at the start of the race and instead began to record the times X seconds into the race , how would the competitors times be affected? Would x seconds be added or subtracted to the times record? Would the median be affected? Why/why not.

How do I even start trying to figure this out? If needed, I can post the men participants, ranks, and their times

Answer 1

well, first you would obviously need a formula to start it off.

Answer 2

They didnt give me a formula, what kind of formula would i need? The last question had to do with finding the standard deviation

Answer 3

this is the data, and the standard deviation of this data is .4414 seconds

Answer 4

.4114 *

Answer 5

If you want to make things fair and even, you would add x seconds to each of the men's time values. Why add? Because the timer didn't start for those first x seconds which makes the male runners seem faster than they really are. Adding those x seconds in slows them down to their true realistic speed.


For example, the first row says that LaShawn Merritt finished the race in 44.60 seconds

Let's say that x = 2 seconds is the time period where the timer for the men didn't start. That means we add 2 to 44.60 to get 46.60 which is LaShawn's actual final time.

Answer 6

Because you are adding x to EVERY time value for the men, every time value will increase by the same amount. This does not change the median because the middle most value will simply increase along with the rest of the group. Think of it as the tide rising all of the boats.

Answer 7

it doesnt tell me how long of a delay the timer was though, does that matter?

Answer 8

or is it simply just an increase because what ever the 'X' value is, will gradually be increased to each time?

Answer 9

Here's a small example

1, 2, 3

add 5 to each score

1+5, 2+5, 3+5 ---> 6, 7, 8

the middle most person goes from 2 to 7 so they stay in the middle

Answer 10

sorry I meant to say that the median value will be y+x where y was the old median

however, the person with the time value of y (the old median) is still in the middle

Answer 11

yeah you just add x to each time value

Answer 12

ohhh okay, that makes sense! thanks!

Answer 13

you're welcome