William Sealy Gosset worked at the Guinness Brewery in Dublin and made substantial contributions to the practice of statistics. In his work at the brewery, he collected and analyzed a great deal of data. Archives with Gosset’s handwritten tables, graphs, and notes have been preserved at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. In one study, Gosset examined the change in the double stout market before and after World War I (1914‑1918). For various regions in England and Scotland, he calculated the ratio of sales in 1925, after the war, as a percent of sales in 1913, before the war. Here are the data:

Region Ratio
Bristol 94
Cardiff 112
English Agents 78
English O 68
English P 46
English R 111
Glasgow 66
Liverpool 140
London 428
Manchester 190
Newcastle‑on‑Tyne 118
Scottish 24

Compute the standard deviation for these data. Give your answer to two decimal places.
=
Compute the quartiles for these data. Give your answers as whole numbers.
1=
3=
Which measure most accurately describes the spread of this distribution? Explain your answer.

The standard deviation is more accurate because the standard deviation incorporates all of the data values, whereas the quartiles do not.

The standard deviation and quartiles both measure spread in different ways. It is not really possible to say that one is more accurate than the other. They should both be used.

The standard deviation is more accurate because it is less vulnerable to extreme values than the quartiles.

Quartiles are less affected by extreme values than the standard deviation, so the quartiles are the most accurate way to represent the spread.