I'm trying to do my stats homework and was wondering if anyone can help explain outliers are? I mean I get what they are but when given a set of numbers I can't figure out how to tell if a # is an outlier using the IQR.

I'm really confused!

Outliers are data that lies far out of the area most of the rest of the data is in.

Sometimes you can explain why the data point. If you were trying to measure the sound from the insects in the trees and a car horn honked, you could reasonably exclude that data as an outlier. But you might also want to exclude a data point that is 10 Standard deviations from your mean. Just don't delete so many points it invalidates what you are doing.

I'll quit here, as I think I have answered your question. Ask again if it is still unclear.

Also see:
Outliers
Math Forum - Ask Dr. Math

How do you compute the them?

@tbt_2012: I really need a little information about your statistics knowledge level before I can give a reasonable answer.

But I'll try anyway. First you need to calculate the standard deviation and the mean of your data. Then decide how many standard deviations to call an outlier.

An example could be you want to determine the height statistics for Kindergartners. You assign someone to measure everyone in a group of 5 Kindergartens. However the person misunderstood and also included the teachers height in the data. On examining the data you find there is 2 distinct groupings, one around 39"-46" the other is a small grouping at 60"-68".

Lol

Dumbo, u don't even know what an outlier is. Prob some dumb blonde. UR SO DUMB