Given:
Family A: 35,5,42,9,16,3,8,12
Family B: 1,5,29,3,7,35,6,9
To find the statement which is correct about the variability of the two families:
We know that,
The higher the mean, the higher the variance, and thus the higher the variability.
So, let's find the mean.
Mean for family A is,
[tex]\begin{gathered} Mean=\frac{35+5+42+9+16+3+8+12}{8} \\ =16.25 \end{gathered}[/tex]Mean for family B,
[tex]\begin{gathered} \text{Mean}=\frac{1+5+29+3+7+35+6+9}{8} \\ =11.88 \end{gathered}[/tex]Since the mean value of family A is greater than that of family B.
Since the variability of family A is greater than that of family B.
So, the mean absolute deviation for family A is greater than that for family B.
Therefore, the correct option is D.