Describing Data:

Numerical Measures

Lectures 3 and 4

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 GOALS

1. Calculate the arithmetic mean, median, and mode.

2. Explain the characteristics, uses, advantages, and
disadvantages of each measure of location.
3. Identify the position of the mean, median, and mode
for both symmetric and skewed distributions.
4. Compute and interpret the range, variance, standard
deviation, and coefficient of variation .
5. Understand the characteristics, uses, advantages,
and disadvantages of each measure of dispersion.

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 Parameter Versus Statistics

PARAMETER A measurable characteristic

of a population.

STATISTIC A measurable characteristic of

a sample.

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 Population Mean
For ungrouped data, the population mean is the sum of all the population values divided by the total number of population values. The sample mean is the sum of all the sample values divided by the total number of sample values.

EXAMPLE:

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 Measures of Central Tendency:
The Mean (con’t)

 The most common measure of central tendency

 Mean = sum of values divided by the number of values
 Affected by extreme values (outliers)

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 … 220

Mean = 13 Mean = 54
11  12  13  14  15 65 11  12  13  14  220 70
  13   54
5 5 5 5

3-5
 The Median
MEDIAN The midpoint of the values after they have been ordered from the smallest to
the largest, or the largest to the smallest.

PROPERTIES OF THE MEDIAN

1. There is a unique median for each data set.
2. It is not affected by extremely large or small values and is therefore a valuable measure
of central tendency when such values occur.
EXAMPLES:

The ages for a sample of five college students are: The heights of four basketball players, in inches, are:

76, 73, 80, 75

21, 25, 19, 20, 22
Arranging the data in ascending order gives:
Arranging the data in ascending order gives:
73, 75, 76, 80.
19, 20, 21, 22, 25.
Thus the median is 75.5

Thus the median is 21.

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 Measures of Central Tendency:
The Median

 In an ordered array, the median is the “middle”

number (50% above, 50% below)

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 … 220

Median = 13 Median = 13

 Less sensitive than the mean to extreme values

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 The Mode

MODE The value of the observation that appears most frequently.

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 Measures of Central Tendency:
The Mode

 Value that occurs most often

 Not affected by extreme values
 Used for either numerical or categorical data
 There may be no mode
 There may be several modes

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Mode = 9 No Mode

3-9
 The Relative Positions of the Mean,
Median and the Mode

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 Measures of Dispersion
 A measure of location, such as the mean or the median, only describes the center of the data. It is
valuable from that standpoint, but it does not tell us anything about the spread of the data.
 For example, if your nature guide told you that the river ahead averaged 3 feet in depth, would you
want to wade across on foot without additional information? Probably not. You would want to know
something about the variation in the depth.
 A second reason for studying the dispersion in a set of data is to compare the spread in two or more
distributions.

 RANGE

 VARIANCE AND STANDARD DEVIATION

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 Variance and Standard Deviation
VARIANCE The arithmetic mean of the squared deviations from the mean.

STANDARD DEVIATION The square root of the variance.

 The variance and standard deviations are nonnegative and are zero only if all observations are the same.
 For populations whose values are near the mean, the variance and standard deviation will be small.
 For populations whose values are dispersed from the mean, the population variance and standard deviation will be large.
 The variance overcomes the weakness of the range by using all the values in the population

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 Measures of Variation:
Comparing Standard Deviations

Smaller standard deviation

Larger standard deviation

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 EXAMPLE – Population Variance and
Population Standard Deviation
The number of traffic citations issued during the last 12 months in Beaufort County, South Carolina, is reported below:

What is the population variance?

Step 1: Find the mean.

Step 2: Find the difference between each observation and the mean, and square that difference.
Step 3: Sum all the squared differences found in step 3

Step 4: Divide the sum of the squared differences by the number of items in the population.

  x  19  17  ...  34  10  348  29
N 12 12

2   (X  ) 2


1,488
 124
N 12

3-14
 Sample Variance and
Standard Deviation

Where :
s 2 is the sample variance
X is the value of each observation in the sample
X is the mean of the sample
n is the number of observations in the sample

EXAMPLE
The hourly wages for a sample of
part-time employees at Home
Depot are: $12, $20, $16, $18,
and $19.

What is the sample variance?

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 Measures of Variation:
Comparing Standard Deviations

Data A
Mean = 15.5
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 S = 3.338
21
Data B Mean = 15.5
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
S = 0.926
21

Data C Mean = 15.5

S = 4.567
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

3-16
 Measures of Variation:
The Coefficient of Variation

 Measures relative variation

 Always in percentage (%)
 Shows variation relative to mean
 Can be used to compare the variability of two or
more sets of data measured in different units

 S
CV     100%

 X 

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 Measures of Variation:
Comparing Coefficients of Variation

 Stock A:
– Average price last year = $50
– Standard deviation = $5

S $5
CVA     100%   100%  10% Both stocks
X $50 have the same
standard
 Stock B: deviation, but
– Average price last year = $100 stock B is less
variable relative
– Standard deviation = $5
to its price
S  $5
CVB     100% 
  100%  5%
X  $100
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 Measures of Variation: Comparing
Coefficients of Variation (con’t)

 Stock A:
– Average price last year = $50
– Standard deviation = $5
S $5
CVA     100%   100%  10% Stock C has a
X $50 much smaller
standard
 Stock C: deviation but a
– Average price last year = $8 much higher
coefficient of
– Standard deviation = $2 variation
 S  $2
CVC     100%   100%  25%

X  $8
3-19
 The Arithmetic Mean and Standard
Deviation of Grouped Data

EXAMPLE: EXAMPLE
Determine the arithmetic mean vehicle selling Compute the standard deviation of the vehicle
price given in the frequency table below. selling prices in the frequency table below.

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 General Descriptive Stats Using
Microsoft Excel Functions

House Prices Descriptive Statistics

$ 2,000,000 Mean $ 600,000 =AVERAGE(A2:A6)
$ 500,000 Standard Error $ 357,770.88 =D6/SQRT(D14)
$ 300,000 Median $ 300,000 =MEDIAN(A2:A6)
$ 100,000 Mode $ 100,000.00 =MODE(A2:A6)
$ 100,000 Standard Deviation $ 800,000 =STDEV(A2:A6)
Sample Variance 640,000,000,000 =VAR(A2:A6)
Kurtosis 4.1301 =KURT(A2:A6)
Skewness 2.0068 =SKEW(A2:A6)
Range $ 1,900,000 =D12 - D11
Minimum $ 100,000 =MIN(A2:A6)
Maximum $ 2,000,000 =MAX(A2:A6)
Sum $ 3,000,000 =SUM(A2:A6)
Count 5 =COUNT(A2:A6)

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 General Descriptive Stats Using
Microsoft Excel Data Analysis Tool
1. Select Data.

2. Select Data Analysis.

3. Select Descriptive
Statistics and click OK.

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 General Descriptive Stats Using
Microsoft Excel

4. Enter the cell

range.
5. Check the
Summary
Statistics box.
6. Click OK

3-23
 Excel output
House Prices
Microsoft Excel
descriptive statistics Mean 600000
Standard Error 357770.8764
output, using the house Median 300000
price data: Mode 100000
Standard Deviation 800000
House Prices: Sample Variance 640,000,000,000
Kurtosis 4.1301
$2,000,000 Skewness 2.0068
500,000 Range 1900000
300,000 Minimum 100000
100,000 Maximum 2000000
100,000 Sum 3000000
Count 5

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