MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY

STATISTICS
Mathematics in the Modern World

Statistics - It involve the Collection, organization, summarization, presentation and

interpretation of data.
Descriptive Statistics – The branch of Statistics that involves collection, organization and
summarization and presentation of data.

Measures of central tendency – Numerical values that locate the center of a set of data
1. Mean – the sum of the data values divide by the number of data values.
 Sigma( Σ ) – the summation notation, it denotes the sum of all the numbers in the
given set.
 Population – An entire group or large group to whom the data were being
collected.
 Sample– Any proper subset of the population.

Example: Six friends in a biology class of 20 students received test grades of 92, 84, 65, 76, 88,
and 90. Find the mean of these test score.

Σ x 92+ 84+65+ 76+88+ 90 495

Solution: Mean ( x ) = = = =82.5
n 6 6

Answer: The mean of these test score is 82.5

2. Median – the middle number or the mean of the two middle numbers in a list of numbers
that have been arranged in numerical order from smallest to largest or largest to
smallest.

Example: Find the median of the data in the following list.

a. 4, 8, 1, 14, 9, 21, 12

Solution: Rank the number from smallest to largest – 1, 4, 8, 9, 12, 14, 21. The middle number
is 9. Thus 9 is the median.

b. 46, 23, 92, 89, 77, 108

Solution: Rank the number from smallest to largest – 23, 46, 77, 89, 92, 108. The middle
numbers are 77 and 89.
77+89
=83
2
Thus 83 is the median of the data.
 3. Mode – the number that occurs most frequently; a list of numbers sometimes do not
have mode and sometimes have more than one mode.
Example: Find the mode of the data in the following list.
a. 18, 15, 21, 16, 15, 14, 15, 21

Solution: In the list, 15 occurs trice which is more often than the others. Thus 15 is the mode.

b. 2, 5, 8, 9,11, 47, 23

Solution: Each number in the list occurs only once. Because no number occurs more often than
the other numbers, there is no mode.

Weighted mean

A value called weighted mean is often used when some data values are more important than
others.
Σ ( x ⋅w )
Formula for Weighted mean= where x is the numbers∧w isthe weights .
Σw

Example : Table 1 shows Anna’s semester course grades. Find Anna’s Grade point Average for
the semester.
Course GRADE UNITS
English 1.75 4
History 1.50 3
Chemistry 2.25 3
Algebra 2.00 4

(1.75 × 4 )+ ( 1.50× 3 ) + ( 2.25 ×3 )+(2.00 × 4)

Weighted mean=
4+3+ 3+4

7 +4.5+ 0.75+8
Weighted mean=
14

20.25
Weighted mean=
14

Weighted mean=1.45

FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION
- A table that list observed events and the frequency of occurrence of each observed event.
 Raw data is data that have not been organized or manipulated.
Example: Below is the list of the number of laptop computer owned by families in 40 household
in a subdivision.

2 0 3 1 2 1 0 4
2 1 1 7 2 0 1 1
0 2 2 1 3 2 2 1
1 4 2 5 2 3 1 2
2 1 2 1 5 0 2 5

The Frequency distribution below was constructed using the data from table above.

Observed Event (number of laptop computers) Frequency (Number of household with laptop)
(x)
0 5
1 12
2 14
3 3
4 2
5 3
6 0
7 1
Total 40

From the table: There are 14 household with 2 laptop. Thus 14 is the mode of the data

To find the mean of the data, use the weighted mean formula. The only change is that the
weights are replaced with the frequencies.