MEASURES OF CENTRAL

TENDENCY
SUMMATION NOTATION
Suppose a variable X is a variable of interest and that the
measurements are taken. The notations X1, X2, X3, … , Xn will be used to
represent the n observations.
Let the Greek letter indicate the “summation of”, then we can write
the sum of the observations as

The number 1 and n are called the lower and upper limits
respectively.
Examples
Rules in Summation
Rule 1. The summation notation is distributive over addition.

Example:
Rule 2. If c is a constant, then

Example:
Rule 3. If c is a constant, then

Example:
Measure of Central Tendency
 any single value that is used to identify the “center” or the
typical value of the data set
 it is often referred to as the average.
MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY
• Mean or Arithmetic Mean
• Median
• Mode
MEAN OR ARITHMETIC MEAN
 the most common average and sometimes simply referred
to as the mean
 the sum of all values of the observations divided by the
number of observations
 the mean for a finite population with N elements is denoted
by the Greek letter (mu)
 the sample mean, used to estimate the population mean is
computed as

where n is the number of observations in the sample.

Examples:
1. The number of employees at 5 different gift shops are 4, 8, 10, 12,
and 6. Find the mean number of employees for the 5 stores.

The mean number or employees for the 5 stores is 8.

2. Scores in GNED 03 first long exam for a sample of 10 students are as
follows: 64, 55, 70, 78, 68, 59, 75, 66, 73 and 69. Find the mean
score.

The average score is 67.7.

Approximating the Mean from a Frequency
Distribution Table

where = frequency of the ith class

= class mark of the ith class
k = total number of classes
n = total number of observations
 Class Class Class Relative
Frequency
Interval Mark Boundary Frequency
112 – 120 2 116 111.5 – 120.5 4 2 50

121 – 129 7 125 120.5 – 129.5 14 9 48

130 – 138 10 134 129.5 – 138.5 20 19 41

139 – 147 12 143 138.5 – 147.5 24 31 31

148 – 156 11 152 147.5 – 156.5 22 42 19

157 – 165 5 161 156,5 – 165.5 10 47 8

166 - 174 3 170 165.5 – 174.5 5 50 3

Total 50 100
 Class Frequency Class Mark
Interval
112 – 120 2 116 232

121 – 129 7 125 875

130 – 138 10 134 1340

139 – 147 12 143 1716

148 – 156 11 152 1672

157 – 165 5 161 805

166 - 174 3 170 510

Total 50 7150
The average score of 50 students in a 200 item test is 143.
Mode

 positional middle of an array

 in an array, one-half of the values precedes the median and one-

half follows it
 The first step in calculating the median, denoted by , is to arrange
the data in an array.

If N is odd,

If N is even,
Example. Find the median of the given data
sets.
A. 75, 57, 67, 71, 72, 65, 73

The average (median) is 71.

B. 8, 12, 6, 18, 17, 13, 15, 10

The average (median) is 12.5.

Approximating the Median from a Frequency
Distribution Table
The first step in approximating the median from a frequency
distribution table is to locate the median class.
The median class is the class containing the median.
To locate the median class, starting from the top, locate the class
with <CF greater than or equal to for the first time.
 After locating the median class, approximate the median using the
formula

Where = lower class boundary of the median class

c = class size
n = total number of observations
= <CF of the class before the median class
= frequency of the median class
Example
Refer to the frequency distribution table of the scores
of 50 students in a 200 item test
 Class Class Class Relative
Frequency
Interval Mark Boundary Frequency
112 – 120 2 116 111.5 – 120.5 4 2 50

121 – 129 7 125 120.5 – 129.5 14 9 48

130 – 138 10 134 129.5 – 138.5 20 19 41

139 – 147 12 143 138.5 – 147.5 24 31 31

148 – 156 11 152 147.5 – 156.5 22 42 19

157 – 165 5 161 156,5 – 165.5 10 47 8

166 - 174 3 170 165.5 – 174.5 5 50 3

Total 50 100
 In our frequency distribution table, the total number of observations
is 50.

The median class is the class which contains the 25th observation,
and that is the 4th class.
 Class Class
Frequency
Interval Boundary
112 – 120 2 111.5 – 120.5 2

121 – 129 7 120.5 – 129.5 9

130 – 138 10 129.5 – 138.5 19

139 – 147 12 138.5 – 147.5 31 Median class

148 – 156 11 147.5 – 156.5 42

157 – 165 5 156,5 – 165.5 47

166 - 174 3 165.5 – 174.5 50

Total 50
Mode
 the observed value that occurs most frequently
 locates the point where the observation values occur with the
greatest density
 it does not always exist, and if it does, it may not be unique
 unimodal if the data set has one mode
 bimodal if there are two modes
 trimodal if there are three modes, etc
 it is not affected by extreme values
 it can be used for qualitative as well as quantitative data
Example. Identify the mode(s) of the
following data sets.
A. 2 5 2 3 5 2 1
Mode = 2
B. 2 5 5 2 2 5 1 3 5 4 2 5 2
Modes = 2 and 5
C. 1 2 3 3 2 1 2 3 1 4 4 5 5 5
Modes = 1, 2, 3, and 5
D. Red blue blue white yellow red green blue orange
white yellow
Mode = blue
Approximating the Mode from a Frequency
Distribution Table
The first step in approximating the mode from a frequency
distribution table is to locate the modal class.
The modal class is the class with the highest frequency.
To locate the modal class, look for the class with the highest
frequency.
 After locating the modal class, approximate the mode using the
formula

Where = lower class boundary of the modal class

c = class size
= frequency of the modal class
= frequency of the class after the modal class
= frequency of the class before the modal class
Example
Refer to the frequency distribution table of the scores
of 50 students in a 200 item test
 Class Class Class Relative
Frequency
Interval Mark Boundary Frequency
112 – 120 2 116 111.5 – 120.5 4 2 50

121 – 129 7 125 120.5 – 129.5 14 9 48

130 – 138 10 134 129.5 – 138.5 20 19 41

139 – 147 12 143 138.5 – 147.5 24 31 31

148 – 156 11 152 147.5 – 156.5 22 42 19

157 – 165 5 161 156,5 – 165.5 10 47 8

166 - 174 3 170 165.5 – 174.5 5 50 3

Total 50 100
 Class Class
Frequency
Interval Boundary
112 – 120 2 111.5 – 120.5

121 – 129 7 120.5 – 129.5

130 – 138 10 129.5 – 138.5

139 – 147 12 138.5 – 147.5

Modal class
148 – 156 11 147.5 – 156.5

157 – 165 5 156,5 – 165.5

166 - 174 3 165.5 – 174.5

Total 50
END OF LESSON