MEASURES OF

CENTERAL WEEK # 07
TENDENCY AND
DISTRIBUTION
MEASURE OF CENTRAL
TENDENCY
 Central tendency may be defined as value of the variate which is thoroughly
representative of the series or the distribution as a whole. It refers to the number used
to represent the center or middle set of a data set.

 The measures of central tendency describe a distribution in terms of its most

“frequent”, “typical” or “average” data value.

But there are different ways of representing or expressing the idea of “typicality”.
Most often used for this purpose are the Mean (the average), the Mode (the most
frequently occurring score) and the Median (the middle score).
 CHARACTERISTICS OF
SATISFACTORY AVERAGE
Central Tendency can be considered of an average since the average is the measure of
how closely other observations cling to it. Following are some of its characteristics:

1. It should be rigidly defined and not left to be estimated.

2. Its computation should be based on all the observations.

3. An average should be capable of being computed easily and rapidly.

4. An average should be as little affected by the fluctuation of sampling as possible.

5. An average should be able to lend itself readily to algebraic treatment.

TYPES OF AVERAGE-CENTRAL
TENDENCY
1. Arithmetic Mean
2. Median
3. Mode
4. Geometric Mean
5. Harmonic Mean
6. Weighted Mean
 ARITHMETIC MEAN
This is the only form of average which is of practical importance. Its value
depends upon all of the observations.

If X1, X2, X3…………XN are the N observation, their will be given by

following all the expression:
 ARITHMETIC MEAN-MERITS
AND DEMERITS
 It is rigidly defined.
 It is based on all the observation.
 It is also least affected by the fluctuations of sampling.

 It is very much affected by the values at extremes.

 Its value may not coincide with any of the given values.
 It can not be located on the frequency curve like median and mode
nor it can be obtained by inspection.
MEDIAN
When all the observation are arranged in ascending or descending order of
magnitude, the middle is known as the median.
 MEDIAN-MERITS AND
DEMERITS
 It can be readily calculated and rigidly defined.
It can be easily and readily obtained even if the extreme values are not known.
 Median always remains the same whatsoever method of computation be applied.

 It fails to remain “satisfactory average” when there is great variation among

the item of population.
 It can not be precisely expressed when it falls between two values.
 It is more likely to be affected by fluctuation of sampling.
 MODE
This is that value of the variable which occurs most frequently or whose
frequency is maximum.
Also, if several samples are drawn from a population, the important value
which appear repeatedly in all the sample is called the mode.

The mode is 6
as it occurs the
most in the
given data set.
 MODE-MERITS AND DEMERITS
It can be obtained simply by inspection.
 Neither the extremes are needed in its computation nor it is affected by them.
 As it is the item of the maximum frequency, the same item is the mode in
every sample of the population.
 In many cases, there is no single and well defined mode.
 When there are more than one mode in the series becomes difficult and takes much time to
compute it.
 It computation is not based on all the observation.
 It, when multiplied by the number of observation, does not give the total of all the
observation, as it is the case with arithmetic mean.
GEOMETRIC MEAN
 Arithmetic mean, although gives equal weightage to all the items, has
got a tendency towards the higher values.
 Sometimes we want an average having a tendency towards the lower
values. In such case we take the help of geometric mean.
 Geometric mean of given series is always less than its arithmetic mean.
It is defined by the following relations.
If a1, a2 , a3, an are N individual of a certain data and (G.M) their
geometric mean,
 GEOMETRIC MEAN
 For a large series, we can use log method to calculate the geometric
mean as the simple multiplication can hectic.

log (G.M) = 1/N . (f1. log (X1) + f2. log (X2) + … fn. log (Xn))

We will take anti-log to calculate the geometric mean.

Here f represents the frequency of occurrence of an item in series.

 GEOMETRIC MEAN-MERITS AND
DEMERITS
This average is also rigidly defined and its computation is based on all the
observation.

 Its computation is not so easy as that of the arithmetic mean. As it is of too

abstract a mathematical character, it is not widely used.

It is difficult in its computation.

 If any item of the series is zero, G.M. becomes zero, and if there are certain
items which are negative, it becomes meaningless even after computed.
HARMONIC MEAN
Harmonic mean of a number of quantities is the reciprocal of the
arithmetic mean of their reciprocal.
 HARMONIC MEAN-MERITS AND
DEMERITS
 It is rigidly defined and the calculation is based on all the observation.
 This is also not much affected by fluctuations of sampling.
 Harmonic mean is neither easily calculated nor comprehensible.

As it gives high weightage to smaller values it is not very useful in the
analysis of the economical data.

 It is not a good representative of any set of observation unless the smaller

values are to be given high weightage.
EXAMPLE
The data on the length (mm) of 20 types of Steel Rods are given below:

Find the Arithmetic Mean, Geometric Mean, Harmonic Mean, Median and
Mode.

138, 138, 132, 149,164, 146, 147, 152,115, 168, 176, 154,132, 146, 147,
140,144, 161, 142, 145
EXAMPLE-SOLUTION
The data on the length (mm) of 20 types of Steel Rods are given below:

Find the Arithmetic Mean, Geometric Mean, Harmonic Mean, Median and Mode.

138, 138, 132, 149,164, 146, 147, 152,150, 168, 176, 154,132, 146, 147, 140,144, 161, 142,
145
 S/R Length Log (X) 1/X
1 138 2.14 0.0072
2 138 2.14 0.0072
3 132 2.12 0.0076
4 149 2.17 0.0067
5 164 2.21 0.0061
6 146 2.16 0.0068
7 147 2.17 0.0068
8 152 2.18 0.0066
9 150 2.18 0.0067
10 168 2.23 0.0060
11 176 2.25 0.0057
12 154 2.19 0.0065
13 132 2.12 0.0076
14 146 2.16 0.0068
15 147 2.17 0.0068
16 140 2.15 0.0071
17 144 2.16 0.0069
18 161 2.21 0.0062
19 142 2.15 0.0070
20 145 2.16 0.0069
Total 2971 43.41 0.1354
The data in the ascending order of magnitude is 132, 132, 138, 138, 140, 142, 144, 145,
146,146,147, 147, 149, 150, 152, 154, 161, 164,168,176
 EXAMPLE-SOLUTION
The given set of data is polymodal type: 132,138,146 and 147 are Repeated
twice. Hence there are four modes.:
Mode:

132
138
146
147
 MEASURE OF DISPERSION
It is quite obvious that for studying a series, a study of the extent of
scatter of the observation of dispersion is also essential along with the
study of the central tendency in order to throw more light on the nature of
the series.

Simply dispersion (also called variability, scatter, or spread) is the

extent to which a distribution is stretched or squeezed.
 DIFFERENT MEASURES OF
DISPERSION
1. Range
2. Mean Deviation
3. Standard Deviation
4. Variance
5. Quartile Deviation
6. Coefficient of Variation
7. Standard Error
RANGE
 Range is the simplest measure of dispersion.
 It is the difference the between highest and the lowest terms of a series of
observations.

Range = XH -XL
XH = Highest Variate Value
XL = Lowest Variate Value
 RANGE-PROPERTIES
 Its value usually increases with the increase in the size of the sample.

 It is usually unstable in repeated sampling experiments of the same size and large
ones.

It is very rough measure of dispersion and is entirely unsuitable for precise and
accurate studies.

 The only merits possessed by ‘Range’ are that it is (i) simple, (ii) easy to
understand (iii) quickly calculated.
 MEAN DEVIATION
The deviation without any sign
convention are known as absolute
deviations.

The mean of these absolute deviations is

called the mean deviation.

If the deviations are calculated from the

mean, the measure of dispersion is called
mean deviation about the mean.
 RANGE-PROPERTIES
1. A notable characteristic of mean deviation is that it is the least when calculated about
the Median .

2. Standard deviation is not less than the mean deviation in a discrete, i.e., it is either to
or greater than the M.D. about Mean

3. When a greater accuracy is required, standard deviation is used as a measure of

dispersion.

4. When an average other than the A.M. Is calculated as a measure of central tendency
M. D. about that average is the only suitable measure of dispersion.
 STANDARD DEVIATION
 Its calculation is also based on the deviations from the arithmetic
mean.

 In case of mean deviation the difficulty we faced was that the sum of
the deviations from the arithmetic mean always coming zero, is solved
by taking these deviation irrespective of sign in standard deviation.

 That difficulty is solved by squaring them and taking the square root
of their average.
 STANDARD DEVIATION

Standard Deviation (S.D)

Where,
xi = An observation or variate value
μ = Arithmetic mean of the population
N = Number of given observations
 STANDARD DEVIATION-
PROPERTIES
 It is rigidly defined.

 Its computation is based on all the observation.

 If all the variate values are the same, S.D.=0

 S.D. is least affected by fluctuations of sampling.

 It is used in computing different statistical quantities like, regression

coefficients, correlation coefficient, etc.
 VARIANCE
 Variance is the square of the standard deviation.

Variance= (S. D.)2

 This term is now being used very extensively in

 The statistical analysis of the results from experiments.

 The variance of a population is generally represented by the symbol σ²

and its unbiased estimate calculated from the sample, by the symbol s².
 QUARTILE DEVIATION
This measure of dispersion is expressed in terms of quartiles and
known quartile deviation or semi-inter-quartile range.

where,
Q1 = Lower Quartile
Q3 = Lower Quartile
 QUARTILE DEVIATION
This measure of dispersion is expressed in terms of quartiles and
known quartile deviation or semi-inter-quartile range.
Qi= [i * (n + 1) /4] th observation

where,
Q1 = Lower Quartile
Q3 = Lower Quartile
 COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION
This is also a relative measure of dispersion and it is especially important on
account of the widely used measure of central tendency and dispersion i.e.,
Arithmetic Mean and Standard deviation.

C.V =

It is expressed in percentage, and used to compare the variability in the two or

more series.
 STANDARD ERROR
The term ‘Standard error’ of any estimate is used for a measure of the average
magnitude of the difference between the sample estimate and the population
parameter taken over all possible samples of the same size, from the population.

This term is applied for the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of
any estimate.

If S be the standard deviation of the sample size N, the estimate of the standard
error of mean is given by
 EXAMPLE
Find Range, Quartile Deviation, Mean Deviation about x and Standard
Deviation and their relative measure for the following data:
1.3, 1.1, 1.0, 2.0, 1.7, 2.0, 1.9, 1.8, 1.6, 1.5

On arranging the above data in ascending order, we get:

1.0, 1.1, 1.3, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 2.0, 2.0

Range: H - L= 2.0 - 1.0 = 1.0

QUARTILE DEVIATION
MEAN DEVIATION ABOUT MEAN
MEAN DEVIATION ABOUT MEAN
S/R Xi Xi-µ (Xi-µ)^2
1 1.0 0.59 0.3481
2 1.1 0.49 0.2401
3 1.3 0.29 0.0841
4 1.5 0.09 0.0081
5 1.6 0.01 0.0001
6 1.7 0.11 0.121
7 1.8 0.21 0.441
8 1.9 0.31 0.961
9 2.0 0.41 0.1681
10 2.0 0.41 0.1681
Total 15.9 2.92 2.5397
MEAN DEVIATION

STANDARD DEVIATION
MEAN DEVIATION

STANDARD DEVIATION
COEFFICIENT OF VARIATION
THE END