Measures of Central Tendency - Mean, Median, and Mode Worksheet Answers
If you want to understand the central tendency of a data set, you need to know how to measure the mean, median, and mode. This is a simple process. You just add all the values in the collection and divide it by the total number of values in the collection. The result is the average of all the values.
These three measures of central tendency have complementary strengths and limitations. They are best used in combination. It is also important to know the type of data you have.
When dealing with categorical or nominal data, mode is the best measure of central tendency. However, when dealing with skewed data, it is recommended that you use median.
Mode and median have complementary strengths and weaknesses. They can both be used for discrete and continuous data. In a data set, the mode is the most common value, while the median is the mid-value.
Median is generally the preferred method of measuring the central tendency of a data set. It can be used on interval, ordered, and ratio data. For example, in a data set with the age of children, the mean and median can be used to determine the most popular age for a child to ride a roller coaster.
The mode is the highest bar on a bar chart. It can be numeric, category, or a combination of both. In a symmetrical distribution, this equals the mean.
It is important to remember that the mode of a data set is the most frequent value. That means that if you are working with data, you should rewrite your list of values in ascending order.
