Five-number summary is a statistical technique used to describe and summarize a set of numerical data. It consists of five descriptive statistics that provide a concise overview of the data set’s characteristics. The five-number summary includes the minimum value, the lower quartile (Q1), the median, the upper quartile (Q3), and the maximum value.
The minimum value is the smallest number in the data set. The lower quartile (Q1) is the median of the lower half of the data set. The median is the middle number in the data set. The upper quartile (Q3) is the median of the upper half of the data set. The maximum value is the largest number in the data set.
The five-number summary is a useful tool to quickly identify the range of values in the data set and the presence of any outliers. It is especially useful when comparing datasets to each other. For example, if the five-number summary for two data sets are similar, then the two sets are likely to be similar in terms of shape and central tendency.
For further reading, you can visit the following scientific journal articles:
1. An, J. and Park, Y. (2015). Using the Five-Number Summary and Box Plots to Summarize Data. The College Mathematics Journal, 36(2), pp.106-114.
2. Juran, S. (2014). Five-Number Summary and Box Plots. In S. Juran, Elementary Statistics (pp. 81-87). Springer, New York, NY.
3. Al-Hussaini, A. (2013). The Five-Number Summary and Box Plots: A Tutorial. Journal of Statistics Education, 21(2), pp.1-17.