The table shows information about the heights, in cm, of a group of Year 9 girls - Edexcel - GCSE Maths - Question 8 - 2020 - Paper 1

From the stem and leaf diagram for the boys, the ordered heights are:

• 158 cm (15 8)
• 159 cm (15 9)
• 159 cm (15 9)
• 164 cm (16 4)
• 165 cm (16 5)
• 167 cm (16 7)
• 168 cm (16 8)
• 170 cm (17 0)
• 173 cm (17 3)
• 174 cm (17 4)
• 177 cm (17 7)
• 180 cm (18 0)
• 182 cm (18 2)

With 15 values, the median height is the 8th value, which is 170 cm.

The median height for the girls is 165 cm, while for the boys it is 170 cm. This indicates that the median height of the boys is greater than that of the girls.

Furthermore, the range of heights for the girls (20 cm) is smaller than the range of heights for the boys, which spans from 158 cm to 182 cm, resulting in a range of:

$Range_{boys} = 182 cm - 158 cm = 24 cm$

Thus, the comparison shows that while boys have a higher median height, the girls' heights are more tightly clustered together with a smaller range.