Measure of Central Tendeny

Definition Of Measures Of Central Tendency

Its is a measure that tells us where the middle of a bunch of data lies.

The three most common measures of central tendency are

• The mean
• The median
• The mode

More About Measures of Central Tendency

Mean: 

It is the most common measure of central tendency. It is simply the sum of the numbers divided by the number of numbers in a set of data. This is also known as average.

Median: 

It is the number present in the middle when the numbers in a set of data are arranged in ascending or descending order. If the number of numbers in a data set is even, then the median is the mean of the two middle numbers.

Mode: 

It is the value that occurs most frequently in a set of data.

Example of Mean:

The grade 10 math class recently had a mathematics test and the grades were as follows:

                                       78
                                       66
                                       82                                 464 / 6 = 77.3 

                                       89
                                       75                        Hence, 77.3 is the mean average of the class.
                                    + 74
                                      464

Example of Median:
    

Use the above data to find the median:

                                                66  74  75  78  82  89

As you can see we have two numbers, there is no middle number.  What do we do? 

It is simple; we take the two middle numbers and find the average, ( or mean ).

                                                             75 + 78 = 153

                                                              153 / 2 = 76.5

                             Hence, the middle number is 76.5. 

Example:
                                 

Find the mode of the following data:
 

                                    78  56  68  92  84  76  74  56  68  66  78  72  66
                                    65  53  61  62  78  84  61  90  87  77  62  88  81

                                                   The mode is  78.
 

Video of Measure of central Tendency:

Here are few exercise you may able to try it out:

1. What is the mean of 2, 4, 6, and 8? 

2.What is the median of -2, 4, 0, 3, and 8? 

3.What is the mode of -2, 4, 0, 3, 0, 2, 4, 4, and 8? 

Original Resource:

http://www.mun.ca/educ/ed4361/virtual_academy/campus_a/losinskim/mean,median,mode.html

http://www.icoachmath.com/math_dictionary/measures_of_central_tendency.html