Describing Data

Question

Determine the mean, median, and mode of following data set:

49.6	58.7	58.7	39.6	32.3
36.8	13.3	26.4	27.9	58.7

 Mean = 

 Median = 

 Mode = 

Round answers to the nearest hundredth.

Answer 1

Mean 

40.2

The mean is the arithmetic average of these 10 numbers: add them all together, and then divide by 10.

Median 

38.2

The median is the middle number when the numbers are arranged from smallest to largest (or from the smallest to the largest). If there is an even number of numbers, add the middle two numbers and divide by 2. Since there are 10 numbers, average 36.8 and 39.6.

Mode

58.7

The mode is the most frequent number in a data set. In this case, 58.7 appears 3 times and is the mode. You can have multiple modes, but you cannot have all the numbers being modes.

Answer 2

Hi Tra'von,

Mean is average, so add up the total and divide by your sample size:

Mean= (49.6+58.7+58.7+39.6+32.6+36.8+13.3+26.4+27.9+58.7)/10

Mean=40.20

Recall that median means the value directly in the middle, so list out your data in numerical order:

13.3, 26.4, 27.9, 32.3, 36.8, 39.6, 49.6,58.7, 58.7, 58.7

We have an even number of values here, so that equates to position 5.5, i.e. halfway between the fifth and sixth chronological values. Add these and divide by 2. In this case:

(36.8 + 39.6)/2= 38.2

Median=38.20

Mode means the value that appears most frequently. Here, with three appearances, that is:

Mode=58.70

I hope this helps.