Measures of Central Tendency

The Arithmetic Mean

Statistics involves the collection, organization, summarization, presentation, and interpretation of

data. The branch of statistics that involves the collection, organization, summarization, and
presentation of data is called descriptive statistics. The branch that interprets and draws conclusions
from the data is called inferential statistics.

One of the most basic statistical concepts involves finding measures of central tendency of a
set of numerical data. It is often helpful to find numerical values that locate, in some sense, the center
of a set of data. Suppose Elle is a senior at a university. In a few months she plans to graduate and
start a career as a landscape architect. A survey of five landscape architects from last year’s senior
Class shows that they received job offers with the following yearly salaries.

$43,750 $39,500 $38,000 $41,250 $44,000

Before Elle interviews for a job, she wishes to determine an average of these 5 salaries. This
average should be a “central” number around which the salaries cluster. We will consider three types
of averages, known as the arithmetic mean, the median, and the mode. Each of these averages is a
measure of central tendency for the numerical data.

The arithmetic mean is the most commonly used measure of central tendency. The arithmetic
mean of a set of numbers is often referred to as simply the mean. To find the mean for a set of data,
find the sum of the data values and divide by the number of data values. For instance, to find the
mean of the 5 salaries listed above, Elle would divide the sum of the salaries by 5.

Mean = $43,750 + $39,500 + $38,000 + $41,250 + $44,000

5

The mean suggests that Elle can reasonably expect a job offer at a salary of about $41,300.

In statistics it is often necessary to find the sum of a set of numbers. The traditional symbol
used to indicate a summation is the Greek letter sigma, Σ. Thus the notation Σx, called summation
notation, denotes the sum of all the numbers in a given set. We can define the mean using
summation notation.

Mean

The mean of n numbers is the sum of the numbers divided by n.

Mean = Σx
n
Statisticians often collect data from small portions of a large group in order to determine
information about the group. In such situations the entire group under consideration is known as the
population, and any subset of the population is called a sample. It is traditional to denote the mean

of a sample by x̅ (which is read as “x bar’) and to denote the mean of a population by the Greek letter μ
(lowercase mu).

Example 1: Find a Mean

Six friends in a biology class of 20 students received test grades of

92, 84, 65, 76, 88, and 90

Find the mean of these test scores.

Solution

The 6 friends are a sample of the population of 20 students, Use x̅ to represent the mean.
 x̅ = Σx = 92 + 84 65 + 76 + 88 + 90 = 495 = 82.5
n 6 6
The mean of these test scores is 82.5.

Check your progress 1: A doctor ordered 4 separate blood tests to measure a patient's total blood
cholesterol levels. The test results were

245, 235, 220, and 210

Find the mean of the blood cholesterol levels.

The Median

Another type of average is the median. Essentially, the median is the middle number or the mean of
the two middle numbers in a list of numbers that have been arranged in numerical order from
smallest to largest or largest to smallest. Any list of numbers that is arranged in numerical order from
smallest to largest or largest to smallest is a ranked list.

Median

The median of a ranked list of numbers is:

• the middle number if n is odd.

• the mean of the two middle numbers if n is even.

EXAMPLE 2 Find a Median

Find the median of the data in the following lists.

a. 4, 8, 1, 14,9, 21, 12 b. 46, 23, 92, 89, 77, 108

Solution

a. The list 4, 8, 1, 14, 9, 21, 12 contains 7 numbers. The median of a list with an odd
number of entries is found by ranking the numbers and finding the middle number.
Ranking the numbers from smallest to largest gives

1, 4, 8, 9, 12, 14, 21

The middle number is 9, Thus 9 is the median.

b. The list 46, 23, 92, 89, 77, 108 contains 6 numbers. The median of a list of data
with an even number of entries is found by ranking the numbers and computing the
mean of the two middle numbers. Ranking the numbers from smallest to largest
gives

23, 46, 77, 89, 92, 108

The two middle numbers are 77 and 89, The mean of 77 and 89 is 83. Thus 83 is
the median of the data.

Check your progress 2 Find the median of the data in the following lists.

a. 14, 27, 3, 82, 64, 34, 8, 51

b. 21.3, 37.4, 11.6, 82.5, 17.2

QUESTION

The median of the ranked list 3, 4, 7, 11, 17, 29, 37 is 11. If the maximum value 37 I increased to 5,
what effect will this have on the median.

The Mode

A third type of average is the mode.

Mode

The mode of a list of numbers is the number that occurs most frequently.

Some lists of numbers do not have a mode. For instance, in the list 1, 6, 8, 10, 32, 15, 49,
each number occurs exactly once. Because no number occurs more often than the other numbers,
there is no mode.

A list of numerical data can have more than one mode. For instance, in the list 4, 2, 6, 2, 7, 9,
2, 4, 9, 8, 9, 7, the number 2 occurs three times and the number 9 occurs three times. Each of the
other numbers occurs less than three times. Thus 2 and 9 are both modes for the data.

Example 3 Find a Mode Find the mode of the data in the following lists.

a. 18, 15, 21, 16, 15, 14, 15, 21 b. 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 4, 7, 23

Solution

a. In the list 18, 15, 21, 16, 15, 14, 15, 21, the number 15 occurs more often than the other numbers.
Thus 15 is the mode.

b. Each number in the list 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 4, 7, 23 occurs only once. Because no number occurs more
often than the others, there is no mode.

Check your progress 3 Find the mode of the data in the following lists.

a. 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 8 b 12, 34, 12, 71, 48, 93, 71

The mean, the median, and the mode are all averages; however, they are generally not equal.
The mean of a set of data is the most sensitive of the averages. A change in any of the numbers
changes the mean, and the mean can be changed drastically by changing an extreme value.

In contrast, the median and the mode of a set of data are usually not changed by changing an
extreme value.

When a data set has one or more extreme values that are very different from the majority of
data values, the mean will not necessarily be a good indicator of an average value. In the following
example, we compare the mean, median, and mode for the salaries of 5 employees of a small
company.

Salaries: $370,000 $60,000 $36,000 $20,000 $20,000

The sum of the 5 salaries is $506,000. Hence the mean is

506, 000 = 101, 200

5
Answer: The median will remain the same because 11 will still be the middle number in the
ranked list.

The median is the middle number, $36,000. Because the $20,000 salary occurs the most, the
mode is $20,000. The data contain one extreme value that is much larger than the other values. This
extreme value makes the mean considerably larger than the median. Most of the employees of this
company would probably agree that the median of $36,000 better represents the average of the
salaries than does either the mean or the mode.

MATH MATTERS Average Rate for a Round Trip

Suppose you average 60 mph on a one-way trip of 60 mi. On the return trip you average 30
mph. You might be tempted to think that the average of 60 mph and 30 mph, which, is 45 mph, is the
average rate for the entire trip. However, this is not the case. Because you were traveling more
slowly on the return trip, the return trip took longer than the original trip to your destination. More
time was spent traveling at the slower speed. Thus the average rate for the round trip is less than the
average (mean) of 60 mph and 30 mph.
 To find the actual average rate for the round trip, use the formula

Average rate = total distance

total time

The total round-trip distance is 120 mi. The time spent traveling to your destination was 1 h,
and the time spent on the return trip was 2 h. The total time for the round trip was 3 h. Thus,

Average rate = total distance = 120 = 40 mph

Total time 3

The Weighted Mean

A value called the weighted mean is often used when some data values are more important
than others. For instance, many professors determine a student’s course grade from the student’s tests
and the final examination. Consider the situation in which a professor counts the final examination
score as 2 test scores. To find the weighted mean of the student’s scores, the professor first assigns a
weight to each score. In this case the professor could assign each of the test scores a weight of

(65 x 1) + (70 x 1) + (75 x 1) + (90 x 2) =390 =78

Note that the numerator of the weighted mean above is the sum of the products of each test
score and its corresponding weight. The number 5 in the denominator is the sum of all the weights (1
+ 1 + 1 + 2 = 5). The procedure for finding the weighted mean can be generalized as follows.

The Weighted Mean

The weighted mean of the m numbers x 1 x2 + x3 … , x n with the respective assigned weights
w1, w2, w3, .. , wn, is

Weighted mean = Σ ( x. w)
Σw
where Σ (x . w) is the sum of the products formed by multiplying each number by its assigned
weight, and 2w is the sum of all the weights.

Many colleges use the 4-point grading system:

A= 4, B = 3, C = 2 D =1 = 0

A student’s grade point average (GPA) is calculated as a weighted mean, where the student’s
grade in each course is given a weight equal to the number of units (or credits) that course is worth.
Use this 4-point grading system for Example 4 and Check your progress 4.

EXAMPLE 4 Find a Weighted Mean

Table 4.1 Dillon's Grades, fall semester course grades. Use the weighted mean formula to find
Dillon’s GPA for the fall semester.

TABLE 4.1 Solution

Dillon’s Grades, Fall Semester
The B is worth 3 points, with a weight of 4; the A is
Course Course grade Course units worth 4 points with a weight of 3; the D is worth 1
English B 4 point, with a weight of 3; and the C is worth 2 points,
History A 3 with a weight of 4. The sum of all the weights is 4 + 3
Chemistry D 3 + 3 + 4, or 14.
Algebra C 4

Weighted mean = (3 X 4) + (4 X 3) + (1 X 3) + (2 X 4)
14
Dillon’s GPA for the fall semester is 2.5.

Table 4.2
Janet’s Grades, Spring Semester CHECK YOUR PROGRESS 4
Table 4.2 shows Janet’s spring semester course
Course Course grade Course units grades. Use the weighted mean formula to find Janet’s GPA
for the spring semester Round to the nearest hundredth.
Biology A 4
Statistics B 3 Data that have not been organized or manipulated in
Buiness C 3 any manner are called raw data. A large collection of raw data
Psychology F 2 may not provide much readily observable information. A
CAD B 2 frequency distribution, which is a table that lists observed
events and the frequency of occurrence of each observed
event, is often used to organize raw data. For instance,
consider the following table, which lists the number of laptop
computers owned by families in each of 40 homes in a
subdivision.

TABLE 4.3

Number of Laptop Computers per Household

 2 0 3 1 1 4
2 1 1 7 0 1
0 2 2 1 2 1
1 4 2 5 1 2
2 1 2 1 2 5

The frequency distribution in Table 4.4 on the next page was constructed using the data from
Table 4.3. The first column of the frequency distribution consists of the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
and 7. The corresponding frequency of occurrence f, of each of the plumbers in the first column is
listed in the second column.

TABLE 4.4

A Frequency Distribution for Table 4.3

This row indicates that there are 14

households with 2 laptop computers.

The formula for a weighted mean can be used to find the mean of the data in a frequency
distribution. The only change is that the weights w 1, w2, w3, ..., wn are replaced with the frequencies
f1, f2, f3, .. fn. This procedure is illustrated in the next example.

EXAMPLE 5 Find the Mean of Data Displayed in a Frequency Distribution

Find the mean of the data in Table 4.4.

Solution

The numbers in the right-hand column of Table 4.4 are the frequencies f for the numbers in
the first column. The sum of all the frequencies is 40.

Mean = Σ ( x . f )
Σf
= (0.5) + (1.12) + (2 . 14) + ( 3 . 3 ) + ( 4 . 2 ) + (5 . 3) + (6 . 0) + (7 . 1)

40
= 79
40

= 1.975

The mean number of laptop computers per household for the homes in the subdivision is
1.975.

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS 5:

A housing division consists of 45 homes. The following frequency distribution shows the
number of homes in the subdivision that are two-bedroom homes, the number that are three-bedroom
homes, the number that are four-bedroom homes, and the number that are five-bedroom homes, Find
the mean number of bedrooms for the 45 homes.

Exercise set4.1

In Exercises 1 to 10, find the mean, median, and mode(s), if any, for the given data. Round
noninteger means to the nearest tenth.

1). 2,7,5, 7, 14

2.) 8, 3, 3, 17, 9, 22, 19

3.) 11, 8, 2, 5, 17, 39, 52, 42

4.) 101, 88, 74, 60, 12, 94, 74, 85

5.) 2.1, 4.6, 8.2, 3.4, 5.6, 8.0, 9.4, 12.2, 56.1, 78.2

6.) 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

7.) 255, 178, 192, 145, 202, 188, 178, 201

8.) 118, 105, 110, 118, 134, 155, 166, 166, 118

9.) -12, -8, -5, -5, -3, 0, 4, 9, 21

10.). - 8.5, -2.2, 4.1, 4.1, 6.4, 8.3, 9.7

11. ) a. | If exactly one number in a set of data is changed, will this necessarily change the mean of
the set? Explain.

b. If exactly one number in a set of data is changed, will this necessarily change the median of the
set? Explain.

12. If a set of data has a mode, then must the mode be one of the numbers in the set? Explain.

13. Academy Awards The following table displays the ages of female actors when they starred in
their Oscar-winning Best Actor performances.

Ages of Best Female Actor Award Recipients, Academy Awards, 1980-2015

 41 33 31 74 33 49 38 61 21 41 26 80
42 29 33 36 45 49 39 34 26 25 33 35
35 28 30 29 61 32 33 45 66 25 46 55

Find the mean and the median for the data in the table. Round to the nearest tenth.

14. Academy Awards The following table displays the ages of male actors when they starred in their
Oscar-winning Best Actor performances.

Ages of Best Male Actor Award Recipients,

Academy Awards, 1980-2015

40 42 37 76 39 53 45 36 62 43 51 32

42 54 52 37 38 32 45 60 46 40 36 47

29 43 37 38 45 50 48 60 43 58 46 33

Find the mean and the median for the data in the table. Round to the nearest tenth.

15. Dental Schools Dental schools provide urban statistics to their students.

a. Use the following data to decide cities you would pick to set up you which of the two practice in.

Cloverdale: Population, 18,250

Median price of a home, $167,000
Dentists, 12; median age, 49
Mean number of patients, 1294.5

Barnbridge: Population, 27,840

Median price of a home, $204,400
Dentists, 17.5; median age, 53
Mean number of patients , 1148.7
b. Explain how you made your decision.

16. Expense Reports A salesperson records the following daily expenditures during a 10-day trip.

$185.34 $234.55 $211.86 $147.65 $205.60

$216.74 $1345.75 $184.16 $320.45 $88.12

In your opinion, does the mean or the median of the expenditures best represent the
salesperson’s average daily expenditure? Explain your reasoning.

Grade Point Average In some 4.0 grading systems, a student’s grade point average (GPA) is
calculated by assigning letter grades the following numerical values.

A = 4.00 B- = 2.67 D+=1.33

A- = 3.67 C+= 2.33 D = 1.00

B+ = 3.33 C - = 2.00 D-= 0.67

B= 3.00 C- =1.67 F = 0.00

In Exercises 17 to 20, use the above grading system to find each student’s GPA. Round to the
nearest hundredth.

17. Jerry’s Grades, Fall Semester

Course Course grade Course units

English A- 3
Anthropology A- 3
Chemistry B 4
French C+ 3
Theatre B- 2
18. Rhonda's Grades, Spring Semester

Course Course grade Course units

English C 3
History D+ 3
Computer science B+ 2
Calculus B- 3
Phitography A- 1