Let's look at this set of numbers:
1, 4, 8, 8, 8, 6, 1, 3, 9
Now let's find the CENTRAL TENDENCIES, or in other words, ways of representing
the set of data with only 1 number.
There are three main ways of doing this.
MEAN
Also called the average, the arithmetic mean is found by adding the numbers in the
set together, and then dividing that sum by the number of data points in the set.
1+4+8+8+8+6+1+3+9 = 48
(There are 9 numbers that we added together)
48 / 9 = 5.333
MEDIAN
When you put the numbers in order of smallest to largest, the median is the middle number.
1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9
*If you have two middle numbers, like if you were to have 1, 2, 3, 4, than you would find the average of the middle two numbers. In this case, 2.5.
MODE
The mode is the number that appears the most amount of times
1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 8, 8, 9
8
Now find the MEAN, MEDIAN, and MODE of this set of numbers
18, 12, 4, 17, 25, 6, 6, 7, 11, 1, 2
The answers are posted below.
Mean:
9.91
Median:
7
Mode:
6