Question

State which type of average, the Mean, Median, or Mode, would be most appropriate in the situation described.

1) An engineer has designed an elevator and wishes to determine the maximum number of people that will be allowed to ride in the elevator at a time. In order to do this, the engineer needs to know the average weight of the people likely to ride in the elevator. Which type of average would be the most useful?

2) Before a mayoral election, a pollster tries to predict which candidate will win the most votes. Which average does the pollster need to know?

3) A state governor is planning a tax cut. A researcher calculates the average amount that will be saved by residents of the state. Which average would best convey the amount that will be saved by most residents of the state?

Answer 1

1)Median. The distribution of weights are skewed, some may be overweight some may be underweight, hence DUETO presence of outlier we use median.

2)Mode. The data is nominal here

3)Mode. This is because mode is the average would best convey the amount that will be saved by most residents of the state, since mode is the value of the variable that has highest frequency to occur.

We use mean or median or mode in these cases as follows :

If there is any understanding problem regarding the sum, please feel free to ask any doubt in comment box. THANKS.