Skewness Coefficient

Listed below is the amount of commissions earned last month for the eight members of

the sales staff at Best Electronics. What do you conclude about the shape of the

distribution?

1036.5 1409 980.9 1456.4 1153.9 1721.2 1099.5 1718.4

Answer

3(𝑥̅ −𝑄2 )
coefficient of skewness = 𝑆

̅
First Step: calculating 𝒙

1036.5 + 1409 + 980.9 + 1456.4 + 1153.9 + 1721.2 + 1099.5 + 1718.4

𝑥̅ = = 1321.975
8

Second Step: calculating Median

We have to put the data in order to calculate median 𝑄2

980.9 1036.5 1099.5 1153.9 1409 1456.4 1718.4 1721.2

𝑛+1 9
 Location of the median = = 2 = 4.5
2

1
 1153.9+1409
 Value of median = = 1281.45
2

Third Step: calculating Standard deviation

∑(𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅ )2 617749.3
𝑆=√ =√ = 297.06
𝑛−1 8−1

𝑥𝑖 𝑥̅ 𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅ (𝑥𝑖 − 𝑥̅ )2

980.9 1321.975
-341.075 116332.2

1036.5 1321.975
-285.475 81495.98

1099.5
1321.975 -222.475 49495.13

1153.9
1321.975 -168.075 28249.21

1409
1321.975 87.025 7573.351

1456.4
1321.975 134.425 18070.08

1718.4
1321.975 396.425 157152.8

1721.2
1321.975 399.225 159380.6
----- ----- ----- 617749.3

3(1321.973−1281.45)
Finally, we can calculate skewness coefficient = = 0.409
297.06

Comment: the distribution is slightly normally distributed.