The sharpness of the peak of a statistical distribution is represented by which of the following?

ADegree of curvature (kurtosis) ✓ Correct

BSkewness

CMean

DMedian

Correct answer: (A) Degree of curvature (kurtosis)

Explanation

The sharpness or peakedness of a distribution's peak is measured by kurtosis.

High kurtosis marks a sharp, heavy-tailed peak while low kurtosis marks a flat one.

Skewness instead measures the asymmetry or lopsidedness of a distribution, not its peak.

The mean is a measure of central location, saying nothing about peak shape.

The median is the middle positional value and also ignores peakedness.

A normal curve has kurtosis treated as the mesokurtic baseline for comparison.

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