CHAPTER

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 Measures of Central
Section13.1
Tendency

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The Arithmetic Mean
 The Arithmetic Mean
•Statistics involves the collection, organization,
summarization, presentation, and interpretation of
data.
•The branch of statistics that involves the
collection, organization, summarization, and
presentation of data is called descriptive
statistics.
•The branch that interprets and draws conclusions
from the data is called inferential statistics.
 The Arithmetic Mean
•One of the most basic statistical concepts
involves finding measures of central
tendency of a set of numerical data.

•We will consider three types of averages,

known as the arithmetic mean, the median,
and the mode. Each of these averages is a
measure of central tendency for the
numerical data.
 The Arithmetic Mean
•In statistics it is often necessary to find the sum of
a set of numbers. The traditional symbol used to
indicate a summation is the Greek letter sigma, .
Thus the notation x, called summation notation,
denotes the sum of all the numbers in a given set.
• We can define the mean using summation
notation.
 The Arithmetic Mean
•Statisticians often collect data from small portions
of a large group in order to determine information
about the group.
•In such situations the entire group under
consideration is known as the population, and any
subset of the population is called a sample.
•It is traditional to denote the mean of a sample by
(which is read as “x bar”) and to denote the mean of
a population by the Greek letter  (lowercase mu).
 Example 1 – Find a Mean
•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 scores.
•Solution:
•The 6 friends are a sample of the population of 20
students. Use to represent the mean.
 Example 1 – Solution cont’d

•The mean of these test scores is 82.5.

The Median
 The Median
•Another type of average is the median.
Essentially, the median is 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.
•Any list of numbers that is arranged in numerical
order from smallest to largest or largest to smallest
is a ranked list.
 Example 2 – Find a Median
•Find the median of the data in the following lists.
•a. 4, 8, 1, 14, 9, 21, 12 b. 46, 23, 92, 89, 77, 108

•Solution:

•a. The list 4, 8, 1, 14, 9, 21, 12 contains 7 numbers. The

median of a list with an odd number of entries is
found by ranking the numbers and finding the middle
number. Ranking the numbers from smallest to largest
gives
• 1, 4, 8, 9, 12, 14, 21

• The middle number is 9. Thus 9 is the median.

 Example 2 – Solution cont’d

•b. The list 46, 23, 92, 89, 77, 108 contains 6 numbers. The
median of a list of data with an even number of entries
is found by ranking the numbers and computing the
mean of the two middle numbers. Ranking the numbers
from smallest to largest gives
• 23, 46, 77, 89, 92, 108

• The two middle numbers are 77 and 89. The mean of 77

and 89 is 83. Thus 83 is the median of the data.
The Mode
 The Mode
•A third type of average is the mode.
 Example 3 – Find a Mode
•Find the mode of the data in the following lists.
•a. 18, 15, 21, 16, 15, 14, 15, 21 b. 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 4, 7, 23

•Solution:
•a. In the list 18, 15, 21, 16, 15, 14, 15, 21, the number 15
occurs more often than the other numbers. Thus 15 is
the mode.

•b. Each number in the list 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 4, 7, 23 occurs

only once. Because no number occurs more often than
the others, there is no mode.
The Weighted Mean
 The Weighted Mean
•A value called the weighted mean is often used when
some data values are more important than others. For
instance, many professors determine a student’s course
grade from
•the student’s tests and the final examination.

•Consider the situation in which a professor counts the final

examination score as 2 test scores. To find the weighted
mean of the student’s scores, the professor first assigns a
weight to each score.
 The Weighted Mean
•In this case the professor could assign each of the test
scores a weight of 1 and the final exam score a weight of 2.

•A student with test scores of 65, 70, and 75 and a final

examination score of 90 has a weighted mean of
 The Weighted Mean
•
Example 4 – Find a Weighted Mean

•Table 13.1 shows Dillon’s fall semester course grades.

Use the weighted mean formula to find Dillon’s GPA for the
fall semester.

Dillon’s Grades, Fall Semester

Table 13.1
 Example 4 – Solution
•The B is worth 3 points, with a weight of 4; the A is worth 4
points with a weight of 3; the D is worth 1 point, with a
weight of 3; and the C is worth 2 points, with a weight of 4.
The sum of all the weights is 4 + 3 + 3 + 4, or 14.

•Dillon’s GPA for the fall semester is 2.5.

 The Weighted Mean
•Data that have not been organized or manipulated in any
manner are called raw data.

•A large collection of raw data may not provide much

readily observable information.

•A frequency distribution, which is a table that lists

observed events and the frequency of occurrence of each
observed event, is often used to organize raw data.
Simple Frequency Distribution
Arithmetic Mean
x f fx f<
14 1 14 1
15 3 45 4
17 3 51 7
20 7 140 14
23 3 69 17
25 2 50 19 Median
28 1 28 20
20 397
Median = 20

Mode = 20
 Measures of Central
Section13.1
Tendency
Grouped Data

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 class class
RANGE f fx u fu
mark (x) boundaries

11 - 15 2 13 26 -2 -4 10.5 - 15.5

16 - 20 4 18 72 -1 -4 15.5 - 20.5

21 - 25 8 23 184 0 0 20.5 - 25.5

26 - 30 5 28 140 1 5 25.5 - 30.5

31 - 35 1 33 33 2 2 30.5 - 35.5
20 455 -1
 class mark
RANGE f fx u fu class boundaries
(x)

11 - 15 2 13 26 -2 -4 10.5 - 15.5

16 - 20 4 18 72 -1 -4 15.5 - 20.5

21 - 25 8 23 184 0 0 20.5 - 25.5

26 - 30 5 28 140 1 5 25.5 - 30.5

31 - 35 1 33 33 2 2 30.5 - 35.5
20 455 -1

Arithmetic Mean Arithmetic Mean

Standard Method Coding Method
 class mark
RANGE f
(x)
fx u fu class boundaries f<

11 - 15 2 13 26 -2 -4 10.5 - 15.5 2

16 - 20 4 18 72 -1 -4 15.5 - 20.5 6

21 - 25 8 23 184 0 0 20.5 - 25.5 14

26 - 30 5 28 140 1 5 25.5 - 30.5 19

31 - 35 1 33 33 2 2 30.5 - 35.5 20
20 455 -1

Median
 class mark
RANGE f
(x)
fx u fu class boundaries f<

11 - 15 2 13 26 -2 -4 10.5 - 15.5 2

16 - 20 4 18 72 -1 -4 15.5 - 20.5 6
𝑑1 = 4
21 - 25 8 23 184 0 0 20.5 - 25.5 14

26 - 30 5 28 140 1 5 25.5 - 30.5 19

31 - 35 1 33 33 2 2 30.5 - 35.5 20
20 455 -1

Mode
LMO = lower boundary of the modal class
𝑑1 d1 = the difference of the frequency of the
𝑀𝑂 = 𝐿𝑀𝑂 + 𝑐
𝑑1 + 𝑑2 modal class and the frequency of the next
4 lower class
𝑀𝑜 = 20.5 + (5) d2 = the difference of the frequency of the
4+3 modal class and the frequency of the next
𝑀𝑂 = 23.36 higher class
c = class size
Section13.2 Measures of Dispersion

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The Range
 The Range
To measure the spread or dispersion of data, we must
introduce statistical values known as the range and the
standard deviation.
 Example 1 – Find a Range
Find the range of the numbers of ounces dispensed by
Machine 1 in Table 13.5.

Soda Dispensed (ounces)

Solution: Table 13.5
The greatest number of ounces dispensed is 10.07 and the
least is 5.85. The range of the numbers of ounces
dispensed is 10.07 – 5.85 = 4.22 oz.
The Standard Deviation
 The Standard Deviation
The range of a set of data is easy to compute, but it can be
deceiving. The range is a measure that depends only on
the two most extreme values, and as such it is very
sensitive. A measure of dispersion that is less sensitive to
extreme values is the standard deviation.
The standard deviation of a set of numerical data makes
use of the amount by which each individual data value
deviates from the mean. These deviations, represented by
, are positive when the data value x is greater than
the mean and are negative when x is less than the mean
. The sum of all the deviations is 0 for all sets of
data.
 The Standard Deviation
This is shown in Table 13.6 for the Machine 2 data of
Table 13.5.

Soda Dispensed (ounces) Machine 2:Deviations from the Mean

Table 13.5 Table 13.6
 The Standard Deviation
Because the sum of all the deviations of the data values
from the mean is always 0, we cannot use the sum of the
deviations as a measure of dispersion for a set of data.
Instead, the standard deviation uses the sum of the
squares of the deviations.
 The Standard Deviation
Most statistical applications involve a sample rather than a
population, which is the complete set of data values.
Sample standard deviations are designated by the
lowercase letter s.

In those cases in which we do work with a population, we

designate the standard deviation of the population by ,
which is the lowercase Greek letter sigma.
 The Standard Deviation
We can use the following procedure to calculate the
standard deviation of n numbers.
Example 2 – Find the Standard Deviation
The following numbers were obtained by sampling a
population.
2, 4, 7, 12, 15
Find the standard deviation of the sample.

Solution:
Step 1: The mean of the numbers is
 Example 2 – Solution cont’d

Step 2: For each number, calculate the

deviation between the number and
the mean.
 Example 2 – Solution cont’d
Step 3: Calculate the square of each of the deviations in
Step 2, and find the sum of these squared
deviations.
 Example 2 – Solution cont’d

Step 4: Because we have a sample of n = 5 values, divide

the sum 118 by n – 1, which is 4.

Step 5: The standard deviation of the sample is .

To the nearest hundredth, the standard deviation is
s = 5.43.
The Variance
 The Variance
A statistic known as the variance is also used as a measure
of dispersion. The variance for a given set of data is the
square of the standard deviation of the data. The following
chart shows the mathematical notations that are used to
denote standard deviations and variances.
 Example 5 – Find the Variance
Find the variance for the sample given earlier in Example 2.

Solution:
The standard deviation which we found in Example 2 is
.

The variance is the square of the standard deviation. Thus

the variance is
Find the range, variance and standard deviation for the
following set of numbers: 55, 53, 76, 52, 91, 98
RANGE

MEAN
Find the range, variance and standard deviation for the
following set of numbers: 55, 53, 76, 52, 91, 98
2

52 -18.83 354.57

53 -17.83 317.91

55 -15.83 250.59

76 5.17 26.73

91 20.17 406.83

98 27.17 738.21

Σ 2,094.84
Find the range, variance and standard deviation for the
following set of numbers: 55, 53, 76, 52, 91, 98

Variance
Standard
Deviation