Question

In a recent discussion, you watched this commercial about Abreva. They said that in as little as 2.5 days you can get relief from cold sores In the fine print, it said "Median healing time is 4.1 days 25% of users healed in 2.5 days" Answer the following questions, be sure to number your answer!

1. What shape do you think the data from this study was and why do you think that?

2. Explain why you think the commercial used the median and not the mean

3. What does that 25 represent in the data from the five-number summary?

4. Finally, discuss what, if any, impact this has on when you watch commercials,

Answer 1

(1)

We think the distribution of the number of days required for getting relief from cold soars will be right skewed shape, because many persons will get cured within a few days and only a few persons with complications may take more umber of days. The mean is larger than the median.

(2)

Since the distribution is skewed, only median is the appropriate measure of Central Tendency because median is not affected by extreme values, whereas mean is affected by extreme values,

(3)

The number 25 refers to percentage of area for First Quartile. "25% of users healed in 2.5 days" refers to First Quartile = Q1 = 2.5 days in the distribution of the number of days required for getting relief from cold soar from the five-number summary. This indicates, out of all persons who used this medicines, 25% of these persons got relief in 2.5 days.

(4)

When we watch this commercials, the impact is that the medicine is effective in curing cold soar to the extent that 25% got relief in 2.5 days, but the commercial is silent about the rest 75% of the persons and this is a negative aspect of this commercial.