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Module Mathematics in the Modern World

STATISTICS: Measure of Central Tendency

Learning objectives:
a. Analyze mean, median, mode and weighted mean to establish a
conjecture;
b. Evaluate problems involving mean, median, mode and weighted
mean.
c. Create one’s methods and approaches to easily determine the
mean, median, mode and weighted mean.

Definition of Terms:
1. Mean – is the central value of a discrete set of numbers: specifically,
the sum of the values divided by the number of values.
2. Median – is the middle number in a sorted, ascending or descending,
list of numbers and can be more descriptive of that data set than the
average.
3. Mode – is the number that appears most frequently in a data set..
4. Weighted Mean – A mean where some values contribute more than others.
When the weights add to 1: just multiply each weight by the matching
value and sum it all up.

The Arithmetic Mean

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. 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 Ellie interviews for a job, she wishes to determine an average
of those 5 salaries. This average should be a “central” number around which
the salaries cluster. We will consider three types of averages, known as the

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arithmetic mean, the median, and the mode. Each of these three 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, find the mean
of the 5 salaries listed above, Ellie would divide the sum of the salaries by
5.

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

mean=
5
$ 206,500
mean= =$ 41,300
5
The mean suggests that Ellie 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 (Ʃ). 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.

Σx
mean=
n
Statisticians often collect data from small portion of a large group in
order to determine information about the group. In such situation 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 x
̅ (which is read as “x bar”) and to denote the mean of a population
by the Greek letter μ (lowercase mu).
Example 1
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
x
̅ to represent the mean.

Σx 92+ 84+65+ 76+88+90 495

x́= = = =82.5
n 6 6
The mean of these test scores is 82.5.

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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.
The median of a ranked list of n numbers is:

 The middle number if n is odd.

 The mean of the two middle number if n is even.

Example 2
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, 14, 12, 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 number 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 number s are 77 and 89. The mean of 77 and 89 is
83. Thus 83 is the median of the data.

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

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

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 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 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 than the others, there is no
mode.
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

Σx 506,000
mean= = =101,200
n 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 values 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 he mode.

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 assigns each of the test score a weight of 1 and the final

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exam score a weight of 2. A student with test scores of 65, 70, and 75 and a
final examination score of 90 has a weight mean of

( 65× 1 ) + ( 70× 1 ) + ( 75× 1 ) +(90 × 2) 390

= =78
5 5
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 n numbers x1, x2, x3, …, xn with the respective
assigned weight w1, w2, w3, …, wn is

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

Many colleges use the 4-point grading system:

A = 4, B = 3, C = 2, D = 1, F = 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 weighted equal to the
number of units (or credits) that course is worth.
Example 4

Course Course Grade Course units

English B 4
History A 3
Chemistry D 3
Algebra C 4
Dillon’s Grade, Fall semester

Table above shows Dillon’s fall semester course grades. Use the
weighted mean formula to find Dillon’s GPA for the fall semester.
Solution
The B is worth 3 points, with a weight of 4; the A is worth 4-
points with a weight of 3; the D is worth 1 point, with a weight of 3;
and the C is worth 2 points, with a weight of 4. The sum of all the
weights is 4 + 3 + 3 + 4, or 14.

( 3 × 4 ) + ( 4 ×3 )+ (1 ×3 )+(2 × 4)
Weighted mean=
14
35
¿ =2.5
14

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 Dillon’s GPA for the fall semester is 2.5
Data that have not been organized or manipulated in any manner are
called raw data. A large collection of raw data may not provide much readily
observable information. A frequency distribution, which is a table that lists
observed events and frequency of occurrence of each observed event, it 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.

2 0 3 1 2 1 0 4
2 1 1 7 2 0 1 1
0 2 2 1 3 2 2 1
1 4 2 5 2 3 1 2
2 1 2 1 5 0 2 5
Number of laptop Computers per Household

The frequency distribution in the next Table below was constructed

using the data from table above. 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 numbers in the first
column is listed in the second column.
A Frequency Distribution for table of numbers of laptop Computers per
household (table *)

Observed event Frequency

Number of laptop Number of
computers, x households, f, with
x laptop computers
0 5
1 12
2 14 ← this row indicates that there are 14
households with 2 laptop computers.
3 3
4 2
5 3
6 0
7 1
40 (total)

The formula for weighted mean can be used to find the mean of the data
in a frequency distribution. The only change is that the weights w1, w2, w3,
…, wn are replaced with the frequency f1, f2, f3, …, fn. this procedure is
illustrated in the next example.
Example 5
Find the mean of the data in table *
Solution
The numbers in the right-hand column of table * are the
frequencies f for the numbers in the first column. The sum of all the
frequencies is 40.

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 Σ(x ∙ f )
mean=
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.

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Evaluation/Assessment:
Module 2A: STATISTICS: Measure of Central Tendency

Name: Rating: _______________________

Course YR/Sections: ____Date of Submission:
A. Find the mean, median, and the Mode, 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. 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
B. Find the mean, median, and all modes for the data in the given
frequency distribution.
1. Points Scored by Lynn 8 10
9 4
Points scored in Frequency 10 3
an basketball
game
4. Ages of Science Fair
2 6
4 5 Contestants
5 6 Ages Frequency
9 3 7 3
10 1 8 4
14 2 9 6
19 1 10 15
11 11
2. Mystic Pizza Company 12 7
13 1
Hourly pay rates Frequency
for employees
P 80 14
P 115 9
P 140 8
P 160 5
P 190 2
P 225 1
P 350 1

3. Quiz Scores
Scores on biology Frequency
quiz
2 1
4 2
6 7
7 12

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