Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

At the end of the lesson, the students are expected to

 Define and differentiate various measures of
describing data;
 Describe a given set of data using various measures;
and
 Interpret values that arise from computation.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 Also known as Measure of Center, Measure of
Central Location
 Measure of finding the mean, median or mode of the
dataset
 The midrange is rarely used. It is calculated by
adding the highest data value to the lowest data value
and dividing the sum by 2.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 Measure of finding the kth element of the
distribution
 Also the quantiles or fractiles of distribution

 Measure of how the data is distributed about the

mean.

 Measure of the degree of symmetry of a distribution.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics
 Most widely used parameter of describing a ratio
data.
 May be classified as
 Arithmetic mean
 Geometric mean
 Harmonic mean
 Trimmed mean
 Quadratic or Root Mean Square (RMS)

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 All values are used.
 It is unique.
 The arithmetic mean is the only measure of central
tendency where the sum of the deviations of each value
from the mean is zero.
 It is calculated by summing the values and dividing by the
number of values.
 Every set of interval-level and ratio-level data has a mean.
 The mean is affected by unusually large or small data
values.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics
 Used in factors being multiplied to another quantity
 Examples of which are interest and discount rates,
amplification factors, being used.

𝑛
𝑛
𝑥𝑔 = 𝑥𝑖
𝑖=1

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 Use for the average of the time rates or averages of
velocity, speed and alike.

𝑛
𝑥ℎ =
𝑛 1
𝑖=1 𝑥
𝑖

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 Removing the upper and lower values (outliers) of
the distribution and getting the arithmetic mean
 Computed by “trimming away” a certain percent of
both the largest and smallest set of values
 For example the 10% trimmed mean is found by
eliminating the largest 10% and smallest 10% and
computing the average of the remaining values.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 Sometimes called the root mean square (RMS) of a
certain quantity.
 Useful for certain quantities where the value of the
quantity is continuously changing from positive and
negative values such as the sinusoidal wave of the
voltage.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 The midpoint of the values after they have been
ordered from the smallest to largest
 There are as many values above the median as below
it in the data array.
 For an even set of values, the median will be the
arithmetic average of the two middle numbers.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 There is a unique median for each data set.
 It is not affected by extremely large or small values
and is therefore a valuable measure of central
tendency when such values occur.
 It can be computed for ratio-level, interval-level, and
ordinal-level data.
 It can be computed for an open-ended frequency
distribution if the median does not lie in an open-
ended class.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 The value of the observation that appears most
frequently

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 Used when you want to find the most occurring/frequent
score
 A quick approximate of the average
 An inspection average
 The most unreliable among the three measures because
its value is undefined in some observations
 The only measure of central location that can be used for
nominal data
 Usually used in polls
 If a distribution is said to have 2 modes, it is bi-modal, if
three, a tri-modal. Generally, multi-modal.
Mapua University – Department of Mathematics
Mapua University – Department of Mathematics
 Quantiles (or Fractiles) are points taken at regular
intervals from the cumulative distribution function
of a random variable.
 Dividing ordered data into 𝑞 essentially equal-sized
data subsets is the motivation for 𝑞-quantiles; the
quantiles are the data values marking the boundaries
between consecutive subsets.
 There are 𝑞 − 1 𝑞 -quantiles, with 𝑘 an integer
satisfying 0 < 𝑘 < 𝑞.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 Dividing the dataset into 4 groups.

 Dividing the dataset into 10 groups.

 Dividing the dataset into 100 groups.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

Any of the three fractiles obtained by dividing the set of
data into four equal parts
 𝑄1 is the lower quartile which contains the lowest
25% of the data.

 𝑄2 is the median which divides the data into two

equal parts.

 𝑄3 is the third quartile (upper quartile) which

contains the upper 25% of the data.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

By Interpolation
 Quartile – One fourth
First (1/4), Second (1/2), Third (3/4)
𝑘 𝑛+1
Quartile locator (Lq): 𝐿𝑞 =
4
 Decile – One tenth
10%, 20%, …, 90%
𝑘 𝑛+1
Decile locator (Ld): 𝐿𝑑 =
10
 Percentile − One hundredth
1%, 2%, …, 99%
𝑘 𝑛+1
Percentile locator (Lp): 𝐿𝑝 =
100

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics
Why study dispersion?
 A measure of location, such as the mean or the
median does not tell us anything about the spread of
the data.
 For example, if your nature guide told you that the
river averaged 3 feet in depth, would you want to
wade across on foot without additional information?
Probably not. You would want to know something
about the variation in depth.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

Why study dispersion?
 A second reason is to compare the spread in two or
more distributions.
 These are measures of the average distance of each
observation from the center of distribution.
 They measure the homogeneity or heterogeneity of a
particular group.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 The difference between the largest and smallest
number in the set

 The average of unsigned deviations from mean

 The absolute measures of dispersion

 The average of square deviations

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 The population/sample standard deviation is given as
the positive square root of population/sample
variance

 The percentage of the ratio of standard deviation to

the mean

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics
 Degree of asymmetry of distribution about a mean. It is a
measure on how the data departs from being symmetrical
 Can be interpreted as symmetric, positively skewed or
negatively skewed

 The degree of peakedness exhibited by the distribution

 Computed as the fourth degree moment from the mean

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 The measures of central tendency are mean, median, and mode.
Midrange is rarely used. Midrange is found by adding the
highest data value to the lowest data value and dividing the sum
by 2.
 Different types of means (arithmetic, weighted, geometric,
harmonic, etc.) are computed depending on the nature of data.
 The measures of location are quartiles, deciles, and percentiles.
 The measures of variation tell us about how the data is
distributed about the mean.
 The measures of shape refer to either skewness or kurtosis.

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 Montgomery and Runger. Applied Statistics and
Probability for Engineers, 5th Ed.
 Microsoft® Excel
 Walpole, et al. Probability and Statistics for Engineers
and Scientists 9th Ed. © 2012, 2007, 2002

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics

 http://irving.vassar.edu/faculty/wl/econ209/dessript.pdf
 http://www.preciousheart.net/chaplaincy/Auditor_Man
ual/10descsd.pdf
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics
 http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/stats/inde
x.cfm

Mapua University – Department of Mathematics