objectives for this activity
During this activity, you will:
- Use a data analysis tool to describe variability of data.
- Find and interpret the standard deviation of data.
Click on a skill above to jump to its location in this activity.
It’s Showtime!
Have you ever thought about how long or how short some movies are? You might have the idea that a typical movie runs a little under two hours but movie runtimes cover a broad range. The shortest feature films have run just over an hour, while the longest run three and even four hours. Have you ever thought about why there is such variability in the length of movies?
In this activity we’ll explore movie lengths or “runtimes” and the ratings that go along with the runtimes. Let’s compare the movie runtimes for rated G (General Audiences, All Ages Admitted) and rated R (Restricted, Children Under 17 Require Accompanying Parent or Adult Guardian) movies.[1] Along the way, you’ll gain an understanding of how variability is reflected in graphical displays and described using numerical summaries.
Before beginning, consider the following question.
question 1
video placement
[Guidance: Think about your answer to Question 1. What kind of movies do you prefer watching? How long do they tend to be? Do you tend to watch a particular movie rating more often than the others? This activity explores the variability in movie runtimes across different ratings. The activity is a quick one, and relies heavily on the data analysis tool. You’ll need an understanding of the three variability measures: standard deviation (which you calculate using technology), variance (which you’ll need to calculate by hand; it’s the square of the standard deviation), and range (which you’ll calculate by hand using the minimum and maximum values given in the tool)].
On the next page, you will use the data analysis tool to describe the variability of a data set.
- What do movie ratings mean? (n.d.). Showbiz.Junkies. Retrieved from https://www.showbizjunkies.com/mpaa-ratings/ ↵
