Why Are Elements Heavier Than Iron Less Abundant Than Those

question 50

Multiple Choice

Why are elements heavier than iron less abundant than those that are lighter?

• A)Because the duration of a supernova is relatively short
• B)Because they tend to be unstable, and easily undergo fission
• C)Spectral evidence suggests they are only rare here on Earth
• D)This is one of the mysteries of cosmic formation that has yet to be answered.

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Definitions:

Statistic

A statistic is a single measure, reported as a number, used to summarize a sample and to estimate the corresponding value in the larger population from which the sample was drawn.

Parameter

A parameter is a numerical characteristic of a population, such as its mean or standard deviation, as opposed to a statistic of a sample.

Central Tendency

A statistical measure that identifies a single value as representative of an entire distribution of data.

Outliers

Observations in a dataset that are significantly distant from the other observations, potentially indicating a measurement error or a different population.