Question

For each data scenario, decide which measure of central tendency would best describe the data and why. Consider the scale of variable measurement and the shape of the distribution.

a. The scores of 50 Grade 6 students on the Math subtest of a standardized test.

b. The type of car chosen by 120 new car buyers.

c. The salaries of all employees (including CEO’s) of a large company

Answer 1

Ans:

a)The scores of 50 Grade 6 students on the Math subtest of a standardized test is likely to have a normal distribution or symmetrical distribution,so will use mean as a measure of central tendency.

b)The type of car chosen by 120 new car buyers will have nominal level of measurement,so we will use mode as measure of central tendency

c)The salaries of all employees (including CEO’s) of a large company is likely to have right skewed distribution,as CEO and some employees will have large salary as compare to others.

For skewed distribution,we use median as a measure of central tendency,as it does not get affected by extreme outliers.