Chapter 5 · Data Analysis: A Concise Overview of Statistical Techniques · Slide 168/274
Measures of Central Tendency
Easy to compute: just sum up and divide.
5.1.3 · Summarizing Data NumericallyMeasures of Central Tendency
Measures of Central Tendency
Mean
Advantages
Easy to compute: just sum up and divide.
Intuitive – a single number “in the middle”; pulled up by large values and down by small ones.
Disadvantages
Can be skewed by outliers – poor for highly variable data.
The mean of 100, 200 and −300 is 0. That is confusing.
Sum of individual elementsSum of average elements
The mean is the “center of gravity” –
just like the balancing point
just like the balancing point
QUESTIONSTAR · Dr. Paul Marx168 / 274