Q1A. - Algebra 1

Question

An electronics store records the number of customers it has during each hour of the day.

86	71	79	86
79	32	88	86
82	69	71	70
86	81	85	86

Find the best measure central tendency of the data.

Step-by-Step Solution

Answer

The best measure central tendency of the data is median which is equal to 81.5.

Step 1. State the concept of Central tendency.

The measure of central tendency is a value that describe the data by a central value. The central values are mean, median and mode.

Mean is the average of all the data points.

Median is the middle value after arranging the data in ascending order.

Mode is the value that is the most frequent value in the data.

Step 2. Find the central tendencies.

First arrange the data in ascending order.

32,69,70,71,71,79,79,81,82,85,86,86,86,86,86,88.

Now find mean, median and mode.

$\begin{array}{c}\text{Mean}=\frac{\begin{array}{l}32+69+70+71+71+79+79+81+82+\\ 85+86+86+86+86+86+88\end{array}}{16}\\ =\frac{1237}{16}\\ =77.31\\ \text{Median}=\frac{1}{2}\left(8\text{th}+9\text{th term}\right)\\ =\frac{1}{2}\left(81+82\right)\\ =81.5\\ \text{Mode}=86\end{array}$

Step 3 . Write the conclusion.

Since median is giving the most central value, therefore, the median is the best representation of the central tendency of the data.