Original Message:
@PhiNotPi why can’t IQR be negative? You’re just taking the difference of the two quartiles, which can contain negative numbers because it is at the interval level.
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The IQR cannot be negative because you subtract the larger quartile from the smaller one, always resulting positive, even with negative numbers.
I.E.: Data Set: -20, -19, -19, -18, -16, -14 -12, -9, -5, -2, -1
Smaller Quartile: -20, -19, -19, -18, -16
Larger Quartile: -12, -9, -5, -2, -1
-5 — -19=14
It is a range, so it has to be positive.