To find the mean absolute deviation, follow these steps:
1. Find the mean of the dataset:
(8.4 + 9.4 + 14.2 + 5.6 + 8.3 + 9.0 + 10.2) / 7 = 8.9857 (rounded to four decimal places)
2. Find the absolute deviation for each data point by subtracting the mean from each data point and taking the absolute value:
|8.4 - 8.9857| = 0.5857
|9.4 - 8.9857| = 0.4143
|14.2 - 8.9857| = 5.2143
|5.6 - 8.9857| = 3.3857
|8.3 - 8.9857| = 0.6857
|9.0 - 8.9857| = 0.0143
|10.2 - 8.9857| = 1.2143
3. Find the mean of the absolute deviations:
(0.5857 + 0.4143 + 5.2143 + 3.3857 + 0.6857 + 0.0143 + 1.2143) / 7 = 1.5286
Therefore, the mean absolute deviation of the dataset is 1.5 (rounded to the nearest tenth).