Question

Which measure of center is most appropriate for this situation and what is its value?

0 24 1 4 5 2 5 4

(2 points) Median; 2 Median; 4 Mean; 2 Mean; 4

Answer 1

There are 3 measures of center:
Mean, Mode and Median

Observe the data given above. One of the value i.e. 24 is much larger than the rest of the values. Such a value is known as an outlier. An outlier can have a large impact on the mean but not on the median. So in presence of an outlier, between Mean and Median, Median is always the best choice to use to represent the data.

In order to find Median, first arrange the data in ascending order as shown:

0, 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 24

Since the number of data values is even, the median will be the average of the middle two values. The middle values are 4 and 4, so their average will also be 4.

Therefore the median of the given data is 4.

Correct Answer: Median , 4