Measures of central tendency

Median - median is the middle value of the series, the value which is exactly in the middle of the
series is the median, it is valued at the exactly at the centre of the series, median divides the
entire series into two equal parts, to calculate median we have to arrange the series into
ascending and descending oder.

Merits -
1. Rigidly de ned
2. Easy to understand and calculate
3. Not in uenced by extreme values
4. Can be calculated for open ended classes.
5. Can be determined by inspection
6. Can be located graphically. Whereas arithmetic mean cannot be located graphically

Demerits -
1. Not exact if no. of observations are even
2. Does not consider all the items of the series
3. Not suitable for further statistical analysis

Quartile, deciles and percentiles

1. Calculation of median quartiles, deciles and percentiles
2. Where as median divides data into 2 exact parts, quartile divides data into 4 parts, 1st quartile
= 1/4th part of data also called as lower quartile, Q2 = exactly in the middle, Q3 = 3/4th part
of quartile also called as upper quartile
3. Deciles - deciles will divide the series into 10 equal parts (D1,D2,D3,D4,D5,D6,D7,D8,D9)
4. Percentiles - this will divide the series into 100 di erent parts (P1,P2,P3,…..P98,P99)

Calculation (always arrange the data into ascending or descending oder before applying formulas)
1. Individual observation - (n+1/2)
2. Lower quartile - Q1 = (n+1/4)
3. Upper quartile - Q3 = 3(n+1)/4
4. 6th decile = 6(n+1)/10
5. 65th percentile = 65(n+1)/100

Median of discrete series - size of (n+1)/2

1. Arrange the data into ascending oder
2. Find the cumulative frequencies
3. Apply the above formula
4. Look in cf column a value which is equal to or next higher to that value, correspoding values
to x is the median
5. Similar procedure should be adopted for q1 and q3

Median for continuous series - size of n/2 items

1. Apply following formula - median = L + (n/2 - cf / f) * i.
2. L = lower limit of median class
3. Cf = cumulative frequency of class preceding to median class
4. f= frequency of median class
5. I=width of median class
6. n= sum of frequencies

Locating median graphically -

1. This can be done with the help of ‘ogive curve’
2. ‘Less than ogive curve’ and ‘more than ogive curve’ on the same graph.
3. Both the curves intersect at a point, a perpendicular is drawn from the point of intersection on
the x-axis this will give median
4. Another method located median graphically is -
- draw only less than ogive
fl
fi
ff
- Calculate n/2 (when continuous series) or n+1/2 (discrete series) as the case maybe and mark it
up on y axis.
- Draw a horizontal line from the point marked in y-axis parallel to x-axis, so that it meets the less
than ogive
- Draw a perpendicular to x-axis
- The point at which the perpendicular meets at the x-axis is the median.
Note - to calculate median we always have to convert data from inclusive type to exclusive type.
Only exclusive type and ascend or descend data can be solved by median.

Takeaways from problems of median