AM761-STATISTICAL METHODS FOR CIVIL

ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS

LECTURE-2: MEASURES OF CENTRAL

TENDENCIES

Dr. DEBABRATA KARMAKAR

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES AND OCEAN ENGINEERING

Department of Water Resources and Ocean Engineering, NITK Surathkal 1

 CONTENTS

 Graphical Methods for Data Representation

 Frequency Table and Graphs
 Histogram
 Frequency polygon and frequency curve
 Cumulative frequency curve or Ogives

 Measures of Central Tendencies

 Arithmetic mean
 Median
 Mode
 Geometric Mean
 Harmonic Mean

 Measures of Dispersions
 Range, Inter-quartile range
 Average deviation or Mean deviation
 Standard deviation and Variance

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY
Histograms, frequency curves summarize a data pictorially so that we are in a position to
visualize the overall pattern of the data set. The numerical measures can also be calculated
for the data set which locate the centre of the distribution. Such measures are called the
measures of central tendency. The commonly used measures of central tendency are:
 Arithmetic mean
 Median
 Mode
 Geometric Mean
 Harmonic Mean

Arithmetic Mean

Given a set of n observations x1, x2, ….. , xn, the arithmetic mean is defined as the sum of
the observations divided by the sample size. It is given by

1 n
x   xi
n i 1

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

In the case of an ungrouped frequency distribution where the value xi occurs with frequency
fi , it is given by

n n
1
x
N
fx
i 1
i i where N   f i
i 1

In the case of an grouped frequency distribution xi is taken as the mid-point of the i-th class
interval.

Properties of the Arithmetic Mean

Property – 1: Algebraic sum of the deviations of a set of observations from their arithmetic
mean is zero, that is, for the frequency distribution xi/ fi , i = 1,2,…,n
n n
1
i 1
fi  xi  x  =0 where x 
N
fx
i 1
i i

n n n
Proof:  f  x  x  = f x  x  f
i 1
i i
i 1
i i
i 1
i  Nx  xN  0

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

Property – 2: The sum of the squares of the deviations of a set of observations is minimum
about its mean, that is
n

 fi  xi  a  is minimum at a  x .
2

i 1

n n
dS
 f  x  a   2 f i  xi  a  1
2
Proof: Let S = i i
i 1 da i 1

n
dS
0   fi  xi  a   0
da i 1

n
1
a
N
fx
i 1
i i x

Hence the minima of S exists at a  x

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

Property – 3: The mean of the combined sample is the weighted mean of the individual
sample means, that is, if k xi is the mean of the ith sample of size ni, i=1,2,…,k, then the
combined sample of size  ni is
i 1

k k
x   ni xi n i
i 1 i 1

Proof: Let xij be an observation of the ith sample with frequency fij where j=1,2,…,ni
and i=1,2,…,k, Then
 fij xij  fij xij
xi  j
= j


ni
fij
j

 
 fij xij i  j ij ij   ni xi
f x
x
i j
=   i

 f ij

i  j ij 
f
  i
ni
i j
 
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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

Shifting of origin and scale (Mean):

In the case of grouped frequency distribution shifting of origin and scale helps to reduce a
lot of arithmetic while calculating mean, particularly when the class frequencies and class
marks are large enough.

Let us suppose that origin is x is shifted to a point a called the assumed mean and scale be
made h times the original scale, then if u is the new variable, we have

xa
u  x  a  hu
h

1 1
x
N
 f * x 
N
 f *  a  hu   a  hu

We can choose a and h as any suitable values depending upon the data given. Normally, a is
the mid-point of the class interval corresponding to which frequency is maximum and h is
taken as the highest common factor of the widths of the class intervals.

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

Median

It is that value of the variable which divides the data set into two equal parts when arranged in
increasing (or decreasing) order. Median is thus a positional average.

 If n is odd, then the median is the value in position (n+1)/2 but if n is even, it is the average
of the values in position n/2 and (n/2)+1.

 In the case of ungrouped frequency distribution, median is obtained by considering

cumulative frequencies.

 In the case of grouped frequency distribution, the median is obtained by the formula

hN 
Median  l    C 
f 2 

where, l is the lower limit of median class, f is the frequency of the median class, h is the
width of the median class and C is the cumulative frequency.

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

Mode

It is that value of the variable occurs with the greatest frequency. If no single value occurs
most frequently, then all the values that occur with the highest frequency are considered as the
modal values.

In the case of grouped frequency distribution the mode is given by the formula

h  f m  f1 
Mode  l 
2 f m   f1  f 2 

where, l is the lower limit of modal class, fm is the frequency of modal class, f1 and f2 are the
frequencies of pre-modal class and post-modal class, h is the width of the modal class.

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

Example 1:

The following frequency distribution gives the values obtained in 60 rolls of a dice. Find (a)
the mean, (b) the median and (c) the mode.

Value (s) 1 2 3 4 5 6
Frequency (f) 9 8 12 11 13 7

Solution:
n
1 212
(a) The mean is x 
N
i 1
f i xi 
60
 3.5

(b) The cumulative frequencies of the data values 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are respectively 9,
17,29, 40, 53 and 60. The median is the average of 30th and 31st values (data is arranged in
increasing order). It is thus 4.

(c) The mode is 5 corresponding to which frequency 13 is the maximum.

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

Example 2:

The following data gives the frequencies of serum cholesterol level of 1000 males aged
between 25 and 35 years arrived at a particular city hospital during the last one year. Calculate
mean, median and mode.

Cholesterol level (mg/100 ml) Number of males

80 -120 12
120 – 160 145
160 – 200 380
200 – 240 292
240 – 280 118
280 – 320 35
320 – 360 11
360 - 400 07

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….
Solution:
(a) To calculate mean take a = 180, h = 40 and formulate the following table:

Class interval Mid-value (x) Frequency (f) u = (x -180)/40 fu

80 – 120 100 12 -2 -24
120 – 160 140 145 -1 -145
160 – 200 180 380 0 0
200 – 240 220 292 1 292
240 – 280 260 118 2 236
280 – 320 300 35 3 105
320 – 360 340 11 4 44
360 - 400 380 07 5 35
Total 1000 591

 591 
Mean x  a  hu  180  40*    203.64mg /100ml
 1000 
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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….
Solution: (b) To calculate median formulate the following table:

Class interval Frequency (f) Cumulative

frequency
80 – 120 12 12
120 – 160 145 157
160 – 200 380 537
200 – 240 292 829
240 – 280 118 947
280 – 320 35 982
320 – 360 11 993
360 - 400 07 1000
We have, N/2 =500. Thus, 160 – 200 is the median class. Therefore, l = 160, f = 380, h =
40, C = 157
hN  40
Median  l    C   160   500  157   196.11
f 2  380
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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

Solution: (c) To calculate mode, Since the maximum frequency is 380, thus 160 – 200
is the modal class. Therefore l = 160, fm = 380, f1 = 145, f2 = 292, h =40

Cholesterol level (mg/100 ml) Number of males

80 -120 12
120 – 160 145
160 – 200 380
200 – 240 292
240 – 280 118
280 – 320 35
320 – 360 11
360 - 400 07

h  f m  f1   380  145 *40  189.10

Mode  l   160 
2 f m   f1  f 2  2*380  (145  292)

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 MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY CONTD….

Geometric mean

The geometric mean G of a set of N observations is the Nth root of their product, that is, if
xi/fi, i=1,2,…n is the frequency distribution, then the geometric mean is


G  x x .....x
f1 f 2
1 2 n 
f n 1/ N
where N   fi

n
1
This can be written as ln G 
N
 f ln x
i 1
i i

Harmonic mean

The harmonic mean H of the set of N non-zero observations is the reciprocal of the arithmetic
mean of the reciprocals of the data values, that is if xi/fi, i=1,2,…n is the frequency
distribution, then the harmonic mean is

1
H n
where N   fi
1
  fi / xi 
N i 1
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 SUMMARY

 Graphical Methods for Data Representation

 Frequency Table and Graphs
 Histogram
 Frequency polygon and frequency curve
 Cumulative frequency curve or Ogives

 Measures of Central Tendencies

 Arithmetic mean
 Median
 Mode
 Geometric Mean
 Harmonic Mean

 Measures of Dispersions
 Range, Inter-quartile range
 Average deviation or Mean deviation
 Standard deviation and Variance

Department of Water Resources and Ocean Engineering, NITK Surathkal 16

 Thank you
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