2.8 The mode and the modal class A third measure of location is the mode, sometimes called the modal value. The mode of a data set is the value which occurs with the highest frequency. A data set can have more than one mode if two or more values have the same maximum frequency. A. data set has no mode if all the values have the same frequency. The modal class for a grouped frequency distribution is the class with the highest frequency density. 2.9 Comparison of the mean, median and modeA commuter who travels to work by car has a choice of two different routes, Vand W. He decides to compare his journey times for each route. So he records the journey times, in minutes, for 10 consecutive working days, for each route. The results are: Route 53 52 48 51 49 47 42 48 57 53 Vv Route 43 41 39 108 52 42 38 45 39 51 Ww Calculate the mean and median for route V, and the mean and median for route W. Which average do you think is more suitable for comparing the time taken on each route?2.10 Practical activities 1 One-sidedness Calculate the mean and median for each set of data in Practical activity 1 in Section 1.5. Which average is more appropriate for comparing the reaction times? Give a reason for your choice. 2 High jump Calculate the mean and median for each set of data in Practical activity 2 in Section 1.5. Which average is more appropriate for comparing the heights jumped? Give a reason for your choice. 3 Memory Calculate the mean and median for each set of data in Practical activity 3 in Section 1.5. Which average is more appropriate for comparing the number of objects remembered? Give a reason for your choice.Exercise 2C 1 For the following distributions state, where possible, the mode or the modal class. a x01234 £74251 x 70 75 80 85 90 P5555 5x23 45 6-7 8-9 10-11 f7 44 4 1 Eye colour Blue Brown Green f 23 39 «3 2. State, giving a reason, which of the mean, median or mode would be most useful in the following situations. The manager of a shoe shop wishes to stock shoes of various sizes. A city council wishes to plan for a school to serve a new housing development. In order to estimate the number of pupils, it studies family sizes on similar developments. A person makes a particular car journey regularly and has kept a record of the times taken. She wishes to make an estimate of the time that her next journey will take.3 A newspaper makes the following statement. “Over 60% of houses sold this month were sold for more than the average selling price.” Consider the possible truth of this statement, and what is meant by ‘average’. 4 State whether you would expect the following variables to have distributions which are skewed, or which are roughly symmetrical. a The heights of female students in a university. b The running times of competitors in a marathon race.c The scores obtained by candidates in an easy examination. The numbers of pages in the books in a library. 5 A mental arithmetic test of eight questions was given to a class of 32 pupils. The results are summarised in the following table. Number of correct answers 0 1234567 8 Number of pupils 121446743 a Find the mean, median and mode of the number of correct answers. Interpret the median and mode in the context of this arithmetic test. b_ Describe the shape of the distribution. Miscellaneous exercise 2 1 The costs, $x, of all telephone calls costing $0.40 or over made by a household over a period of three months are as follows. 0.92 0.66 0.46 0.42 0.54 0.41 0.49 0.59 0.75 0.52 0.42 0.40 0.49 0.52 0.64 0.48 0.57 0.46 0.49 0.42 0.65 0.730.40 1.12 0.94 0.76 0.48 0.85 1.66 0.40 0.50 Yax=19.14 a State why it is advisable to omit 1.66 from a stem-and-leaf diagram of these data. b Draw an ordered stem-and-leaf diagram, with 1.66 omitted but noted as HI 1.66 next to the diagram. (HI is short for ‘high’.) c¢ For the data obtain the median, the mean and the mode. d= Which of the median, mean and mode would be the best to useto give the average cost of a phone call costing $0.40 or over? Give a reason for your answer. e Inthe same period, the number of calls which cost under $0.40 was 125, with mean cost $0.142. Find the mean cost of all the calls for the period. 2 The number of times each week that a factory machine broke down was noted over a period of 50 consecutive weeks. The results are given in the following table. Number of breakdowns 0 1 2 345 6 Number of weeks 212148842 a Find the mean number of breakdowns in this period. Is this value exact or an estimate? Db Give the mode and median of the number of breakdowns. 3. The following table summarises the maximum daily temperatures in two holiday resorts in July and August 2002.Temperature 18.0-19.9 20.0-21.9 22.0-23.9 24.0-25.9 26.0-27.9 2 ec) Resort 1 9 13, 18 10 7 frequency Resort 2 6 21 23 8 3 frequency a State the modal classes for the two resorts. Db A student analysed the data and came to the conclusion that, on average, Resort 1 was hotter than Resort 2 during July and August 2002. Is this conclusion supported by your answer topart (a)? If not, then obtain some evidence that does support the conclusion. 4 There are 5000 schools in a certain country. The cumulative frequency table shows the number of pupils in a school and the corresponding number of schools. Number of pupils ina < << << 6 $ s ¢ school 100 150 200 250 350 450 600 Cumulative frequency 200 800 1600 2100 4100 4700 5000 i Draw a cumulative frequency graph with a scale of 2 cm to 100 pupils on the horizontal axis and a scale of 2 cm to 1000 schools on the vertical axis. Use your graph to estimate the median number of pupils in a school. ii 80% of the schools have more than n pupils. Estimate the value of n correct to the nearest ten. iii Find how many schools have between 201 and 250 (inclusive) pupils.iv Calculate an estimate of the mean number of pupils per school. (Cambridge AS & A Level Mathematics 9709/61 Paper 6 Q6 June 2011) The standardised marks received by 318 students who took a mechanics examination are summarised in the following grouped frequency table. Mark 0-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-100 Frequency 120 7 13, 25 46 78 105 32 a Draw a histogram of these data, and describe the skewness ofthe distribution. b Estimate the mean mechanics mark. ¢ Estimate the median mechanics mark by drawing a cumulative frequency graph. The same 318 students also took a statistics examination during the same session. The mean and median of those marks were 71.5 and 70.0 respectively. Write a brief comparison of the students’ performances in the two examinations. An ordinary die was thrown 50 times and the resulting scores were summarised in a frequency table. The mean score was calculated to be 3.42. It was later found that the frequencies 12 and 9, of two consecutive scores, had been swapped. What is the correct value of the mean? Three hundred pupils were asked to keep a record of the total time they spent watching television during the final week of their summer holiday. The times, to the nearest t+ hour, are summarised in the following table.Number of 0-4 5-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 3 3 3 hours 3 4 338 3 3 3 4004 4 4 4 4 4 Frequency, 4 21 43 62 90 56 18, 6 a b ao Estimate the mean viewing time. State two sources of inaccuracy in your estimate of the mean. Find an estimate of the median viewing time. What do the values of the mean and median indicate about the skewness of the data?8 It is sometimes said that for any set of quantitative data, the median (me), mode (mo) and mean (x) are such that either x < me < mo or mo < me = x. Check that this is true of the distribution in Question 2. Show that the statement is untrue for the following data: x123 45 f21197 9 The table gives the prices (in dollars) of shares in 10 firms on Monday and Tuesday of a particular week. The Monday price is m, the Tuesday price is ¢, and d = t—m. Fim A B C D E F G HI J m 151 162 200 233 287 302 303 571 936 1394 t 144 179 182 252 273 322 260 544 990 1483 d -7 17 -18 19 -14 20 -43 -27 54 89 Calculate m, Fand d. Does d= fm? Calculate the medians of m, t and d. Is it true that meg = me, — me,,?10 The weights in grams of a number of stones, measured correct to the nearest gram, are represented in the following table. Weight (grams) 1-10 11-20 21-25 26-30 31-50 51-70 Frequency 2x 4x 3x Sx. Ax A histogram is drawn with a scale of 1 cm to 1 unit on the vertical axis, which represents frequency density. The 1-10 rectangle has height 3 cm. i Calculate the value of x and the height of the 51-70 rectangle. ii Calculate an estimate of the mean weight of the stones. (Cambridge AS & A Level Mathematics 9709/61 Paper 6 Q4 November 2010)