Measures of Central

Tendency
“What??”
• Measures of Central
Tendency are used to get an
overall sense of a group of
numbers.
• MEAN-a.k.a. “average”. Add up all the
numbers, and divide by how many there
are.

Below is a chart displaying how many

cars were sold on each day of the week.
 • Below is a chart displaying how
manycars were sold on each day of
the week
Day Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat

Cars 12 2 4 3 7 5 18
Sold

What is the daily average of cars sold for

this week?

(12+2+4+3+7+5+18) / 7
 Day Sun Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat

Cars 12 2 4 3 7 5 18
Sold

Around
51
7 cars sold
7
(12+2+4+3+7+5+18)
per day on average
…Divided by
How many cars each
How many days
day added up In the week
• Median: The middle number in a set
of data lined up from smallest to
largest.

*If there are two middle numbers, just

average them together.
 • Prices of different shoes at the store.

$ 45 First, re-write the numbers

$12 In order
$45
$87
$56
$125
Middle$34
number is “45”. The Median price
Is $45
 Points scored by Emily per
basketball game:
12 15 13 22 13 26
What is the median score per game?
12 13 13 15 22 26
The median is 14
If there’s two middle numbers…
(13 + 15) / 2
…just average them
together 14
(find the Mean)…
• MODE: The number that appears the
most in a set of data. It is possible to have
more than one mode, or none at all !!
 • A survey asking 15 students, “How
many pairs of shoes do you own?”

5,14, 4, 5, 7, 8, 3, 2, 6, 5, 5, 7, 2, 3, 7
Put in order.
2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 14

Looks like “5” happens the most…

…”5” is our MODE.
 • Check the set of data, find the Mean,
Median, and Mode.

Pts.
Per
Game
10 12 14 11 12 15 9 32 10
 Pts.
Per
Game

10 12 14 11 12 15 9 32 10

Do you see one score that “doesn’t belong?”

A number that is “out there”
is called an OUTLIER
 • Outliers can
drastically affect the
mean of the data.

Pts.
Per
Game
10 12 14 11 12 15 9 32 10

Find the MEAN of the data, but this time

DON’T Include the Outlier.
• The MEAN is not always the best way to
get a good idea of the spread of numbers.