Text 1: Measures of central location

A measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe a set of data by
identifying the central position within that set of data. As such, measures of central tendency
are sometimes called measures of central location. They are also classed as summary statistics.
The mean (often called the average) is most likely the measure of central tendency that you are
most familiar with, but there are others, such as the median and the mode.
Mean
The first measure of central location is the usual average that is familiar to
everyone. In the formula in the following definition we introduce the standard
summation notation known as sigma, where is the capital Greek letter sigma. In general,
the
notation followed by a second mathematical symbol means to add up all the
values that the second symbol can take in the context of the problem.
Sample Mean

x =

Xi
n

The sample median x of a set of sample data for which there are an odd number of
measurements is the middle measurement when the data are arranged in numerical
order. The sample median x of a set of sample data for which there are an even
number of measurements is the mean of the two middle measurements when the data
are arranged in numerical order

Mode
Perhaps you have heard a statement like The average number of automobiles
owned by households in the United States is 1.37, and have been amused at the
thought of a fraction of an automobile sitting in a driveway. In such a context the
following measure for central location might make more sense. The sample mode8 of a set of
sample data is the most frequently occurring value.
For any data set there is always exactly one mean and exactly one median. This
need not be true of the mode; several different values could occur with the highest
frequency, as we will see. It could even happen that every value occurs with the
same frequency, in which case the concept of the mode does not make much sense.
The mode is a measure of central location since most real-life data sets have more
observations near the center of the data range and fewer observations on the lower
and upper ends. The value with the highest frequency is often in the middle of the
data range
Median
The median is another measure of central location. The median is the value in the middle
when the data are arranged in ascending order (smallest value to largest value). With an odd
number of observations, the median is the middle value. An even number of observations
has no single middle value. In this case, we follow convention and define the median as the
average of the values for the middle two observations. For convenience the definition of the
median is restated as follows
For an odd number of observations, the median is the middle value.
For an even number of observations, the median is the average of the two
middle values.

Text 2: Measures of Variability

In addition to measures of location, it is often desirable to consider measures of variability, which
indicates the degree of spread that a group of data presents in a distribution. Larger numbers indicate
greater variability of scores. Sometimes the word dispersion is substituted for variability, and it is
normal to find that term used in some statistics texts. For this course, the measures of variability will be
divided into three categories: the variance, the standard deviation and the coefficient of variation
Variance and Standard Deviation
Variance, as the name suggests, is a measure of how different the elements in a given population are.
Variance is used to indicate how spread out these elements are from the mean of the population. There
are two kinds of variance: population variance and sample variance.
Population variance is the variance of the entire population and is denoted by 2 while sample variance
is the variance of a sample space of the population; and is denoted by S2
Standard deviation is the square root of variance. Standard deviation is a measure of how precise the
mean of a population or sample is. It is used to indicate trends in the elements in a given data set with
respect to the mean, i.e, the spread of these elements from the mean.
Just as we have a population and sample variance, we also have a population and sample standard
deviation. Population standard deviation is denoted by while the sample standard deviation is denoted
by S. Although absolute deviation is also a measure of dispersion, variance and standard deviation are
better measures because of the way they're calculated. Calculating variance involves squaring the
differences (deviations) between the element and the mean and this makes the differences larger and
thus more manageable. Making the differences larger adds a weighting factor to them making trends
easier to spot
If the variance in a sample is used to estimate the variance in a population, then the previous formula
underestimates the variance and the following formula should be used:

Standard Deviation
On the other hand, the standard deviation is simply the square root of the variance. The standard
deviation is an especially useful measure of variability when the distribution is normal or approximately
normal because the proportion of the distribution within a given number of standard deviations from
the mean can be calculated.
Sample standard deviation

s= s2
Population standard
deviation

In some situations we may be =

interested
in a descriptive statistic that indicates how large

the standard deviation is relative to the mean. This measure is called the coefficient of
variation and is usually expressed as a percentage.

Coefficient of variation

( standardmeandeviation ) x 100

From both texts, respond to the next questions. Remember that only answers in English will be
allowed.
1. What are the principal measures of central location described in text 1
2. What are the principal measures of variability described in text 2
3. In text 1, what are the main characteristics of measures of central location?
4. In text 2, what are the main advantages of measures of variability in relation to
measures of central location?
5. In text 1, is it appropriate to say that it can be only one mode? Justify your answer
6. From text 2, describe the main characteristics of variance
7. From text 1, explain how it is possible to find the median in an odd number of
observations and in an even number of observations
8. From text 2, what is the main importance of coefficient of variability as a measure of
variability?