Question

The mean and the median are two types of measures of center.

1. Give a real-world example of when the median is preferred over the mean. Refer to the eText and resources in the course Materials folder.

2. Create your number collection, any 7-12 numbers of your choice.

Arrange them in order and find Median and Mean.

Calculate Sample Variance and Standard Deviation for your sample

To find  Variance and Standard Deviation on Excel:   One way sample variance and sample standard deviation can be calculated on Excel: Open a spreadsheet. enter data in first column. Lets say data is 3,6,8,12,16,17,20,23,24. It would be entered in cells A1 to A9. Go to Formulas at top ribbon, More Functions, Statistical, Scroll to var.s for sample variance. In No.1 dialog box enter cell range A1:A9. Note the variance value appears in bottom right of dialog box. (56.75) Repeat to find standard deviation. Scroll to stdev.s for sample standard deviation. (7.533)

Answer 1

1. Medain is better than mean when data is asymmetrical and where there are extreme values such as household incomes. For example If we are using mean as a measure of household income it would overestimate this because there will be two category of people, few people are billionaires and lot of people who earn minimum wages and mean will lie in higher income values The median income can give the better income over mean since half of the people would earn less than median and half would earn more.