Lesson 5

Explore

In Discover you were asked to rank your text messaging data to a list of others. You probably determined that a ranking system was needed in order to understand your position in relation to the others. What was your rank? Does your rank have any meaning? If so, what does it mean?

When describing the relative position or rank of a data point in relation to other data, it is common to describe the number of data points above or below the given data point. This is simple when there is a small, finite number of data, such as the sample of student text messages given in Try This 1. However, when there are large numbers of data, it is often easier to describe the rank of position using percentages.

Return to the text messaging table for Try This 1 and insert your personal text messaging data into the table. Think about the answers to the following questions:

• How many students had fewer text messages per month than you?
• What percentage does this translate to?

Calculating the percentage of students with fewer text messages than you is the same as calculating your percentile rank in relation to text messages among this group of students.