Question

The prices of plants that Maurice bought are 10, 8, 20, 25, 14, 48, would, 10, 8, and 16. Calculate the mean and median with and without the outliner. Round to nearest tenth, if necessary. Then state whether the mean or the median best describes the center

Answer 1

The mean of the prices is 17.7. The median with the outlier is 14, and without the outlier is 12. The median best describes the center of the dataset.

Step-by-step explanation:

• To calculate the mean, add up all the numbers and divide by the total count of numbers. In this case, the sum of the prices is 10 + 8 + 20 + 25 + 14 + 48 + 10 + 8 + 16 = 159.
• The total count of numbers is 9 (as one value is repeated), so the mean is 159/9 = 17.7.
• To calculate the median with the outlier, arrange the numbers in ascending order: 8, 8, 10, 10, 14, 16, 20, 25, 48. Since there are 9 numbers, the median is the middle value, which is 14.
• To calculate the median without the outlier, arrange the numbers in ascending order: 8, 8, 10, 10, 14, 16, 20, 25. Since there are 8 numbers, the median is the average of the two middle values, which are 10 and 14.
• Therefore, the median without the outlier is (10 + 14)/2 = 12.
• In this case, the median (12) best describes the center as it is not affected by the outlier and provides a more representative value of the dataset.