Question

select the outlier in the data set.
2 44 54 55 57 60 62 71
if the outlier were removed from the data set, would the mean increase or decrease?
increase decrease

Explanation:

Step1: Calculate the original mean

The mean formula is $\frac{\sum_{i = 1}^{n}x_{i}}{n}$. Here, $n = 8$, and $\sum_{i=1}^{8}x_{i}=2 + 44+54 + 55+57+60+62+71=405$. The original mean is $\frac{405}{8}=50.625$.

Step2: Remove the outlier and calculate the new mean

The outlier is $2$. After removing it, $n = 7$, and $\sum_{i = 1}^{7}x_{i}=44+54 + 55+57+60+62+71=403$. The new mean is $\frac{403}{7}\approx57.57$.

Answer:

increase