popularity and effectiveness

[gupviv23]

Hi

Can you please explain the graph and the subsequent questions in the following screenshot.



Thanks
Vivek

[tim]

Before we help with this question, we need you to show some effort of your own. What did you try on this question? Where did you get stuck?

[gupviv23]

Hi Tim

For 1st - the most effective treatment used by greatest number of people, according to me it should be exercise because it is the most used(0.85) based on popularity and it is the most effective (close to 0.7) as well.

For 2nd- least effective among the labelled treatments tried by more than half- means x-axis more than 0.5- it is caffeine but that was not in the dropdown so selected journaling.

Thanks
Vivek

[tim]

you're right on both counts. sounds like the software may have a glitch, but you've done this one correctly..

[terryfshs]

Hello,

I have a question in regards to the 1st question. I am trying to understand what "The most effective treatment used by the greatest number of people" mean.

When I saw this, the first thing that pops into my mind was:
"Effective scale / Popularity"

I then used the following logic:
-Light Therapy: 0.45/0.18 = 2.5
-Exercise 0.7/0.85 = 0.82
Light Therapy > Exercise. I chose Light Therapy.

I know Light Therapy is wrong. May I ask what I missed?

Thanks,
Terry

[RonPurewal]

terry, don't overcomplicate the issue. when they say "the most effective ... used by the most people", then guess what -- you are looking for two things:
1/ the most effective;
2/ used by the most people.
both of these things describe exercise, so there's no doubt that exercise is the correct response here.

--

also, not only are your ratios extraneous to the question at hand, but they don't actually make any sense here: the vertical axis isn't the kind of quantity for which that approach works.
if the vertical axis were an aggregate quantity -- like, total number of hot dogs consumed by everyone -- then doing this sort of division would actually mean something. (in that particular example, it would be the average number of hot dogs eaten per person.)
on the other hand, in this case, the vertical axis is not that kind of quantity. therefore, dividing the two numbers produces a ratio that doesn't have any immediate conceptual meaning.