Symmetric and skewed data EMCJN

Last year you learnt about three shapes of data distribution: symmetric, left skewed
and right skewed.
A symmetric distribution is one where the left and right hand sides of the distribution
are roughly equally balanced around the mean. The histogram below shows a typical
symmetric distribution.
mean median
balanced left and right tails
For symmetric distributions, the mean is approximately equal to the median and the
left and right tails are equally balanced, meaning that they have about the same length.
If large numbers of data are collected from a population, the graph will often have a
bell shape. If the data was, say, examination results, a few learners usually get very
high marks, a few very low marks and most get a mark in the middle range. This is a
common type of symmetric data known as a normal distribution. We say a distribution
is normal if
the mean, median and mode are equal.
it is symmetric around the mean.
68% of the sample lies within one standard deviation of the mean, 95% within
two standard deviations and 99% within three standard deviations of the mean.
68%
95%
99%
x 3 x 2 x x x 3 x 2 x
See video: 29BV at www.everythingmaths.co.za
366 9.1. Revision