Which of the following statements about the data given below is false?
Time taken by 18 participants to solve a puzzle is given below.
43, 22, 20, 15, 35, 40, 35, 25, 12, 28, 45, 30, 30, 35, 31, 39, 25, 30

The correct option is C The best measure of the variation that describes the data set is IQR, i.e., 10.

Solution:
Arrange the data in ascending order.
12, 15, 20, 22, 25, 25, 28, 30, 30, 30, 31, 35, 35, 35, 39, 40, 43, 45
The shape of distribution in the dot plot is symmetric.
Therefore, the best measure of the center that describes the data set is mean.
$\text{Mean}=\frac{12+15+20+22+25+25+28+30+30+30+31+35+35+35+39+40+43+45}{18}=\frac{540}{18}=30$
The best measure of the variation that describes the data set is MAD, not IQR.
$\text{MAD}=\frac{18+15+10+8+5+5+2+0+0+0+1+5+5+5+9+10+13+15}{18}=\frac{126}{18}=7$