Question

Body Temperature. A study by researchers at the University of Maryland addressed the question of whether the mean body temperature of humans is 98.6~F. The results of the study by P. Mackowiak et al. appeared in the article " A Critical Appraisal of 98.6F, the Upper Limit of the Normal Body Temperature, and Other Legacies of Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich" (Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 268, pp. 1578-1580). Among other data, the researchers obtained the body temperatures of 93 healthy humans, as provided on the Weists state site.

a. use the technology of your choice to identify the modality and symmetry (or non-symmetry) of the distribution of the data set.

b. if unimodal, classify the distribution as symmetric right-skewed. or left-skewed.

Short answer

a) The distribution is unimodal and non-symmetric.

b) The distribution is left-skewed.

Step-by-step solution

Part (a) Step 1: Given Information 

To determine the modality and symmetry of the distribution.

Part (a) Step 2: Explanation 

The frequency distribution is,

The frequency histogram will have the bars of height equal to frequency so,

The distribution is unimodal because the distribution has exactly one peak.

The distribution is roughly non-symmetric because the peak of the distribution is not roughly in the middle of the graph.

Bimodal:

Having or involving two modes, especially two maxima (of a statistical distribution).

Part (b) Step 1: Given Information 

To find the shape of the distribution is right-skewed or left skewed.

Part (b) Step 2: Explanation 

It should be obvious that symmetrical indicates that both sides of anything are identical; asymmetrical means that two faces are different in some way. Asymmetrical items are irregular and crooked, and when folded in half, they do not match up exactly.

The tail of a "skewed right" distribution is on the right side.

The left side of a "skewed left" distribution has the tail.

Here, the graph's peak is to the right of the histogram, the distribution is left-skewed.