Question 12.29

12.29 How many calories in a hot dog? Some people worry about how many calories they consume. Consumer Reports magazine, in a story on hot dogs, measured the calories in 20 brands of beef hot dogs, 17 brands of meat hot dogs, and 17 brands of poultry hot dogs. Here is computer output describing the beef hot dogs,

Mean = 156.8 Standard deviation = 22.64 Min = 111 Max = 190 N = 20 Median = 152.5  Quartiles = 140, 178.5

the meat hot dogs,

Mean = 158.7 Standard deviation = 25.24 Min = 107 Max = 195 N = 17 Median = 153  Quartiles = 139, 179

and the poultry hot dogs,

Mean = 122.5 Standard deviation = 25.48  Min = 87 Max = 170 N = 17 Median = 129 Quartiles = 102, 143

(Some software uses rules for finding the quartiles that differ slightly from ours. So software may not give exactly the answer you would get by hand.) Use this information to make boxplots of the calorie counts for the three types of hot dogs. Write a brief comparison of the distributions. Will eating poultry hot dogs usually lower your calorie consumption compared with eating beef or meat hot dogs? Explain.