MATH 201 Week 3 Discussion

MATH 201 Week 3 Discussion | regent-university

The three most common measures of central tendency are mean, median and mode. The mean is the sum of all data values divided by total number of values.  The median is the middle value. The mode is the most frequent occurring data value.

For the data values given

Mean  =  (1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 14)/9 = 27/9 =  $3,  

Median  =  $2

Mode  = $1

The advantage of reporting mean is that it uses all the data values.  The disadvantage is that it is affected by the outliers (very large/small data values).  The advantage of reporting median is that it is not affected by the outliers.  So higher or lower data values effect cannot be seen in this central tendency. The mode represents the most frequent data value, it can be either of the data values present.  Sometimes the data does not have a mode.

The best measure depends on the data. If there are no outliers present, then mean is the best representation.  If outliers are present then median is the best representation.

So whenever we are studying any report, we need to look for the data values which are significantly different (low or high) from the most data values.  Then we can decide which measure of central tendency needs to be studied for making conclusions.