Question

a. Copy the data file SmallComp (data on America’s top 40 best small companies of 2010 as rated on Forbes.com on 6/14/2011). Use MegaStat to construct a box plot and a dot plot (under Descriptive Statistics) for the variable Sales Growth (annual %). Be careful when column label takes up more than one cell (row). PRINT both plots to hand in. (2 pts.)

b. Explain how these data illustrate a good example of an “outlier.” (1 pt.)

c. Explain whether or not a runs plot would be an appropriate way to display these data. (1pt.)

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Top 40 Best Small Companies as Rated by Forbes Magazine
		Sales	Growth
Rank	Company	($mil)	(%)
1	Medifast	218	41
2	InterDigital	359	17
3	American Public Education	174	49
4	Deckers Outdoor	869	33
5	WebMD Health	480	28
6	NutriSystem	534	63
7	National Presto Industries	491	27
8	Industrial Services of America	285	3
9	True Religion Apparel	335	54
10	Transcend Services	84	33
11	Rackspace Hosting	698	51
12	UFP Technologies	115	8
13	GeoResources	98	86
14	Strayer Education	579	22
15	Temper Pedic International	986	4
16	iRobot	373	27
17	Dolby Laboratories	859	21
18	Hittite Microwave	200	24
19	Capella Education	385	23
20	LoopNet	75	37
21	TransDigm Group	802	22
22	Quality Systems	308	27
23	Continental Resources	906	15
24	Balchem	235	31
25	HMS Holdings In	261	39
26	Interactive Intelligence	143	21
27	VSE	960	42
28	Under Armour	926	34
29	FS Networks	803	31
30	InnerWorkings	439	64
31	Akamai Technologies	930	35
32	Lumber Liquidators	598	26
33	Allegiant Travel	604	47
34	Steven Madden	570	7
35	KMG Chemicals	195	35
36	Sapient	766	23
37	Concur Technologies	280	37
38	Syntel	469	19
39	Atwood Oceanics	621	33
40	FactSet Research Systems	641	21
Source:
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/23/best-small-companies-10_land.html
accessed June 14, 2011

Answer 1

b. Explain how these data illustrate a good example of an “outlier.”

this data contains outliers, as we can see in the growth plot there is a point 86 of growth that is shown which is too much higher than the central mean growth. So this is an good example of outliers

c. Explain whether or not a runs plot would be an appropriate way to display these data.

by seeing data in together it is very dificult to identify whether there is an outlier or not. Only way is to plot this data and check for outliers. hence ploting is the best options to plot the data to visualize