Find the mean, median, and mode for the data set below. Tell which measure of central tendency best describes the data.
weights of books (oz): 10 15 7 15 14 11
To find the mean of the data set, we sum up all the values and divide by the total number of values:
Mean = (10 + 15 + 7 + 15 + 14 + 11) / 6 = 72 / 6 = 12 oz
To find the median, we need to arrange the data set in ascending order:
7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 15
As there are an even number of values, the median is the average of the middle two numbers:
Median = (11 + 14) / 2 = 12.5 oz
To find the mode, we look for the value that appears most frequently in the data set:
The mode is 15 oz, as it appears twice, more than any other value.
In this case, the mean and median are both reasonable measures of central tendency since the data is relatively symmetric and does not contain any outliers. However, since there is a value that appears more frequently than any other, the mode (15 oz) can be considered the best measure of central tendency for this data set.