Question

Acorns and oak trees Of the many species of oak trees in the United States, 28 grow on the Atlantic Coast and 11 grow in California. The back-to-back stemplot displays data on the average volume of acorns (in cubic centimeters) for these 39 oak species. 29 Write a few sentences comparing the distributions of acorn size for the oak trees in these two regions.

Short answer

The distribution on the Atlantic Coast is skewed to the right, whereas the distribution in California is roughly symmetric.

The Atlantic distribution appears to be devoid of outliers, whereas the California distribution appears to contain one.

The Atlantic Coast distribution's median is lower than the California distribution's median.

The variability in the Atlantic Coast distribution appears to be lower than in the California distribution.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Given information. 

Leaf (Atlantic Coast)	Stem	Leaf (California)
998643	0	4
88864211111	1	06
50	2	06
6640	3
8	4	1
	5	59
8	6	0
	7	1
1	8
1	9
5	10
	11
	12
	13
	14
	15
	16
	17	1

Key: $\overline{)2}6$represent an oak species with acorn volume$2.6c{m}^3$

Step 2. comparing the distributions of acorn size for the oak trees in these two regions.   

The Atlantic Coast distribution is skewed to the right (with the majority of data values near the top of the stemplot and a tail of more unusual data values near the bottom), whereas the California distribution is roughly symmetric (as most of the data value lie in the middle of the stemplot, when ignore the outlier).

The Atlantic Coast distribution appears to be devoid of outliers (as evidenced by the absence of large gaps in the stemplot), whereas the value 17.1 appears to be an outlier in the California distribution (as the value is separated from the rest of the data by a large gap).

The median is the value in the middle of the sorted data set. The median of the Atlantic Coast distribution (1.7 cm3) appears to be less than that of the California distribution (41 cm3).

The Atlantic Coast distribution appears to have less variability than the California distribution, with data values ranging from 0.3 cm3 to 10.5 cm3, whereas data values for California range from 0.4 cm3 to 171 cm3.

As a result:

The distribution on the Atlantic Coast is skewed to the right, whereas the distribution in California is roughly symmetric.

The Atlantic distribution appears to be devoid of outliers, whereas the California distribution appears to contain one.

The Atlantic Coast distribution's median is lower than the California distribution's median.

The variability in the Atlantic Coast distribution appears to be lower than in the California distribution.