Summarize distribution graphically by constructing histogram Microeconomics
Student loans can add up, especially for those attending professional schools to study in such areas as medicine, law, or dentistry. Researchers at the University of Washington studied medical students and gave the following information on the educational debt of medi- cal students on completion of their residencies (Annals of Internal Medicine [March 2002]: 384-398):
Educational Debt (dollars) Relative Frequency
|
0 to 5000 |
.427 |
| 5000 to 20,000 |
.046 |
| 20,000 to 50,000 |
.109 |
| 50,000 to 100,000 |
.232 |
100,000 or more .186
a. What are two reasons that you could not use the given information to construct a histogram with the educational debt intervals on the horizontal axis and relative frequency on the y-axis?
b. Suppose that no student had an educational debt of $150,000 or more upon completion of his or her residency, so that the last class in the relative frequency distribution would be 100,000 to 150,000. Summarize this distribution graphically by constructing a histogram of the educational debt data. (Don’t forget to use the density scale for the heights of the bars in the histogram, because the interval widths aren’t all the same.)
c. Based on the histogram of Part (b), write a few sentences describing the educational debt of medical students completing their residencies.
