Q 59. - The Practice of Statistics for AP

Question

Paying for championships Does pay high salaries to lead to more victories in professional sports? The New York Yankees have long been known for having Major League Baseball’s highest team payroll. And over the years, the team has won many championships. This strategy didn’t pay off in $2008$ when the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series. Maybe the Yankees didn’t spend enough money that year. The graph below shows histograms of the salary distributions for the two teams during the $2008$ season. Why can’t you use this graph to effectively compare the team payrolls? 

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

The scales of both the graphs are different.

Step 1: Given information

Step 2: Concept

A histogram is a graphing tool that is frequently used. It's used to summarise data that's either discrete or continuous and measured on an interval scale. It's a popular way of exhibiting key data distribution properties in a user-friendly way.

Step 3: Explanation

The histograms of the salary distributions for the two teams for the $2008$ season are shown in the graphs below.

Because the scales of both graphs are different, it is impossible to compare the team payroll of two teams during the $2008$ season. Salary and frequency are not calculated on the same scale.