Practice Problems: Measures of Central Tendency

Practice Problems: Measures of Central Tendency
1. Ms. Marian G. Magcalas, an instructor at Laguna University, assigns Statistics

practice problems to be worked via the net. Students must use a password to
access the problems and the time of log-in and log-off are automatically
recorded for the teacher. At the end of the week, the teacher examines the
amount of time each student spent working the assigned problems. The data is
provided below in minutes.
Data
15
28
25
48
22
43
49
34
22
33
27
25
22
20
39
1. Find the mean.

2. Find the median.
3. Find the mode.
4. What does this information tell you about students' length of time on the
computer solving Statistics problems?
2. A group committed to quality television has been concerned about a new talk
show. For two weeks, they decide to count the number of words that must be
"bleeped" as too obscene for television and the number of physical altercations.
They hope that after recording this data that they will be able to argue that the
show is inappropriate for television particularly during the day. The data for
number of words censored is provided below.
Data
342
267
321
157
33
254
166
132
289
349
1. Find the mean
2. Find the median
3. Find the mode
4. What does this information tell you about the talk show?
3. Sam wants to buy a new camera, and decides on the following
rating system:
 Image Quality 50%
 Battery Life 30%
 Zoom Range 20%
The Sonu camera gets 8 (out of 10) for Image Quality, 6 for Battery Life
and 7 for Zoom Range
The Conan camera gets 9 for Image Quality, 4 for Battery Life and 6 for
Zoom Range
Which camera is best?
4. Alex usually eats lunch 7 times a week, but some weeks only
gets 1, 2, or 5 lunches.
Alex had lunch:
 On 2 weeks: only one lunch for the whole week

 on 14 weeks: 2 lunches each week
What is the mean number of lunches Alex has each week?

Solution to Problem no. 1
Mean
Mean = X / N = 452 / 15 = 30.13
Median
15 20 22 22 22 25 25 27 28 33 34 39 43 48 49
The median is 27. Half of the scores fall above this number and half fall
below.
Mode
Mode is equal to 22. It occurs 3 times; all other scores occur only 2 times or
less
What does this information tell you about students' length of time on
the computer solving trigonometry problems?
The mean number of minutes spent solving the problems on the computer
was approximately 30 minutes.
Half of the students spent more than 27 minutes solving the problems, and
half spent less time solving the problems.
More students spent 22 minutes solving the problems than any other amount
of time.
Solution to Problem No. 2
Mean
Mean = X / N = 2310 / 10 = 231.0
Median
33 132 157 166 254 267 289 321 342 349
The median is 260.5. The two middle scores are 254 and 267. By adding
these two numbers together and dividing by 2, I find the median = 260.5.
Half of the scores fall above this number and half fall below.
Mode
This data set has no mode; no number occurs more than once.
What does this information tell you about the talk show?
All things considered, probably not the best show for your kids to watch
(particularly if they can lip read). The mean number of "bleeped" words per
show is 231 words. Half of the shows have to censor over approximately
260 words and half censor less. There is no mode - each show appears to be
unique as to the number of words "bleeped".
Sonu: 0.5 × 8 + 0.3 × 6 + 0.2 × 7 = 4 + 1.8 + 1.4 = 7.2
Conan: 0.5 × 9 + 0.3 × 4 + 0.2 × 6 = 4.5 + 1.2 + 1.2 = 6.9
Sam decides to buy the Sonu.

Use "Weeks" as the weighting:
Weeks × Lunches = 2 × 1 + 14 × 2 + 8 × 5 + 32 × 7
= 2 + 28 + 40 + 224 = 294
Also add up the weeks:
Weeks = 2 + 14 + 8 + 32 = 56
Divide total lunches by total weeks:
Mean = 294/56 = 5.25
Let's use:
 w for the number of weeks (the weight)

 x for lunches (the value we want the mean of)
Multiply w by x, sum up w and sum up wx:
Weight Lunches wx
(w) (x)
2 1 2
14 2 28
8 5 40
32 7 224
Σw = 56 Σwx = 294
The symbol Σ (Sigma) means "Sum

Up"
Divide Σwx by Σw:
Mean = 294/56 = 5.25

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Practice Problems: Measures of Central Tendency

1. Ms. Marian G. Magcalas, an instructor at Laguna University, assigns Statistics

1. Find the mean.

1. Find the mean

2. Find the median

3. Find the mode

Which camera is best?

Alex had lunch:

 On 2 weeks: only one lunch for the whole week

What is the mean number of lunches Alex has each week?

Mean = X / N = 2310 / 10 = 231.0

33 132 157 166 254 267 289 321 342 349

Solution to Problem No. 3

Sonu: 0.5 × 8 + 0.3 × 6 + 0.2 × 7 = 4 + 1.8 + 1.4 = 7.2

Conan: 0.5 × 9 + 0.3 × 4 + 0.2 × 6 = 4.5 + 1.2 + 1.2 = 6.9

Sam decides to buy the Sonu.

Use "Weeks" as the weighting:

Also add up the weeks:

Divide total lunches by total weeks:

Mean = 294/56 = 5.25

 w for the number of weeks (the weight)

Multiply w by x, sum up w and sum up wx:

The symbol Σ (Sigma) means "Sum

Mean = 294/56 = 5.25

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