What term describes a measure of variation that relies on the extreme values in a data set?

The term that describes a measure of variation relying on the extreme values in a data set is the range. The range is calculated by subtracting the minimum value from the maximum value, making it highly sensitive to outliers or extreme values. This characteristic means that the range can provide insight into the spread of the data by focusing solely on the endpoints of the dataset.

In contrast, variance and standard deviation measure how spread out the data points are in relation to the mean, incorporating all data values rather than just the extremes. The interquartile range, on the other hand, focuses on the middle 50% of the data, specifically the difference between the first and third quartiles, thus providing a measure of variability that is not influenced by extreme values. Therefore, the range is explicitly defined by its dependence on these maximum and minimum values, confirming it as the correct answer.