Measures of Central

Tendency and Variability

Introduction and Focus Questions

Have you ever wondered why a certain size of
shoe or brand of shirt is made more available than
other sizes?
Have you ever asked yourself why a certain
basketball player gets more playing time than the
rest of his team mates?
Have you ever thought of comparing your
academic performance with your classmates? Have
you ever wondered what score you need for each
subject to qualify for honors? Have you at certain
time asked yourself how norms and standards are
made?

PRE-ASSESSMENT
(Anticipation-Reaction Guide)
Before

Questions
Which measure of central tendency is generally
used in determining the size of the most saleable
shoes in a department store?
What is the most reliable measure of variability?
Which measure of central tendency is greatly
affected by extreme scores?
Margie has grades 86, 68, and 79 in her first three
tests in Algebra. What grade must she obtain on
the 4th test to get an average of 78?
What is the median age of a group of employees
whose ages are 36, 38, 24, 21, and 27?
If the range of a set of scores is 14 and the lowest
score is 7, what is the highest score?
What is the standard deviation of the scores 5, 4,
3, 6, and 2?

After

The Situation
You are one of the winners in a contest where the
prizes are gift certificates from the famous stores in
the city. The sponsors are the following:
BENCH
PENSHOPPE
FOLDED & HUNG
SM DEPARTMENT STORE
You are to choose only one store. Which among the
four stores will you choose?

The Mode
The mode is the value or element which
occurs most frequently in a set of data. It is
the value or element with the greatest
frequency. Mode can be quantitative or
qualitative. To find the mode for a set of data:
1. select the measure that appears most often in
the set;
2. if two or more measures appear the same
number of
times, then each of these values is a
mode;
3. if every measure appears the same number of
times, then the set of data has no mode.

Try answering these items

Find the mode in the given sets of scores.
1. {10, 12, 9, 10, 13, 11, 10}
2. {15, 20, 18, 19, 18, 16, 20, 18}
3. {5, 8, 7, 9, 6, 8, 5}
4. {7, 10, 8, 5, 9, 6, 4}
5. {12, 16, 14, 15, 16, 13, 14}
6. {smart, globe, sun, sun, sun, globe, smart}
7. {1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3}

Pinklace sells ice cream. For five days, they

sold the following:
Number of cups of ice cream
sold

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

13
27
15
15
30

Questions:
1. What is the total number of cups of ice cream sold
during the whole week?
2. If Pinklace will be able to sell same number of cups of ice
cream each day, how many will it be?

The Mean
The mean (also known as arithmetic
mean) is the most commonly used
measure of central position. It is used
to describe a set of data where the
measures cluster or concentrate at a
point. As the measures cluster around
each other, a single value appears to
represent distinctively the typical
value.

How do we compute for the mean?

It is the sum of measures x divided by the number
N of measures. It is symbolized as x (read as x
bar). To find the mean of an ungrouped data, use
the formula

where
and

= summation of x (sum of measures)

N= number of values of x.

Lets practice
The grades in Geometry of 10 students are
87, 84, 85, 85, 86, 90, 79, 82, 78, 76. What is
the average grade of 10 students?
Solution:

Mean(

Lets Practice.

Find the mean of the following

numbers:
1. 9, 15, 12, 10, 20
2. 100, 121, 132, 143
3. 54, 58, 61, 72, 81, 65

WORK IN PAIRS
The first three test scores of each of the four
students are shown. Each student hopes to
maintain an average of 85. Find the score needed
by each student on the fourth test to have an
average of 85, or explain why such average is not
possible.

82
a. Lisa: 78, 80, 100
b. Mary: 90, 92, 95
c. Lina: 79, 80, 81
d. Willie: 65, 80, 80

63
100
115

Whos
Representing
?

The situation
Sonyas
Kitchen
received
an
invitation in a Food Exposition. All the
seven service crew are eager to go but
only one can represent the restaurant.
To be fair, Sonya thought of sending
the crew whose age is in the middle of
the ages of the seven crews.

She made a list of the service crews and their

ages:
Service Crew Age
Michelle 47
Sheryl 21
Karen 20
Mark 19
Jason 18
Oliver 18
Eliza 18

Guide Questions:

1. What is the mean age of

the service crew?
2. Is there someone in this
group who has this age?
3. How many persons are
older than the mean age?
How many are younger?
4. Do you think this is the
best measure of central
tendency to use? Explain.

Looking at the same list

Guide Questions:

Service Crew
Michelle
Sheryl
Karen
Mark
Jason
Oliver
Eliza

47
21
20
19
18
18

Age
1. Arrange
2.
3.
4.
5.

18
6.

the

ages in numerical

order.
What is the middle value?
Is there a crew with this
representative age?
How many crew are younger
than this age? Older than this
age?
Compare the result with the
previous activity. Which result do
you think is a better basis of
choosing the representative?
Who is now the representative
of Sonyas Kitchen in the Food
Fair?

The Median
The median is the middlemost value
or term in a set of data arranged
according to size/magnitude (either
increasing or decreasing). If the
number of values is even, the median
is the average of the two middlemost
values.

Lets practice
Andreas scores in 9 quizzes during the first
quarter are 8, 7, 6, 10, 9, 5, 9, 6, and 10. Find
the median.
Solution
Arrange the scores in increasing
order.
5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10
The median is
8.

Find the median of the following sets of

data:
1. 32, 45, 22, 21, 18, 36, 50
2. 95, 95, 96, 88, 82, 100
3. 221, 332, 421, 326, 281, 220, 341, 109, 112

What measure of central tendency is used in the following situations?

Kevin noticed that half of the cereal brands in

the store cost more than Php 150.00.

median
The average score on the last Pre-Algebra test
was 85.
mean
The most common height on the basketball
team is 6
ft 11 in.
mode
One-half of the cars at a dealership cost less
than Php 700, 000.00.
median
The average amount spent per customer in a
department store is Php 2, 500.00.
mean

Calculate the mean, median, and mode of each set of

numbers.

1.
2.
3.

1. Mean = 34.
4, 14, 29, 44, 46, 52, 55
86
Median = 44
Mode = none
42, 49, 49, 49, 49
2. Mean = 47.6
Median = 49
Mode = 49
22, 34, 34, 34, 45, 61

4. 20, 22, 56, 62, 63, 67

3. Mean = 38.33
Median = 34
Mode = 34

5. 11, 33, 54, 54, 71, 84, 93

Solve the following problems.

1. Andy has grades of 84, 65, and 76 on three math

tests. What grade must he obtain on the next test

to have anaverage of exactly 80 for the four tests?
2. A storeowner kept a tally of the sizes of suits
purchased in her store. Which measure of central
tendency should the storeowner use to describe the
most saleable suit?
3. A tally was made of the number of times each color
of crayon was used by a kindergarten class. Which
measure of central tendency should the teacher use
to determine which color is the favorite color of her
class?

Continuation
4. In January of 2006, your family moved to a tropical
climate. For the year that followed, you recorded the
number of rainy days that occurred each month. Your
data contained 14, 14, 10, 12, 11, 13, 11, 11, 14, 10, 13,
12.
a. Find the mean, mode, and the median for your data
set of rainy days.
b. If the number of rainy days doubles each month in
the year 2007, what will be the mean, mode,
median?
c. If, instead, there are three more rainy days per
month in the year 2007, what will be the mean, mode,
median?

Continuation
5. The values of 11 houses on Washington Street

are shown in the table.

a. Find the mean value of
these houses
in dollars.
b. Find the median value of
these houses
in dollars.
c. State which measure of
central
tendency, the mean
or the median, best
represents the values of
these 11
houses. Justify your
answer.

The situation
A testing laboratory wishes to test
two experimental brands of outdoor
paint to see how long each paint will
last before fading. The testing lab
makes use of six gallons of paint for
each brand name to test.

The results (in months) are as

follows:
Brand A:
Brand B:

10 60 50 30 40 20
35 45 30 35 40 25

Guide Questions:
1. What is the mean score of each brand?
2. Can the mean of each brand be a good basis for
comparing them?
3. Which brand has results closer to the mean?
4. If you are to choose from these two brands, which
would you prefer? Why?

Measures of Dispersion or Variability

-refer to the spread of the values about the
mean. These are important quantities used by
statisticians in evaluation. Smaller dispersion of
scores arising from the comparison often
indicates more consistency and more reliability.
The most commonly used measures of
dispersion are the range, the average deviation,
the standard deviation, and variance.

The Range

The range is the simplest measure of

variability. It is the difference between the
largest value and the smallest value.
Range= Largest Value Smallest
Value

Going back to the activity

T
E
OR TEN
M
S
I
ES
NS OR
CO SC

Brand A:
10 60 50 30 40 20
Largest Value = 60
Smallest Value = 10
RANGE = Largest Value Smallest Value
= 60 10
= 50

Brand B:

35

45

Largest Value = 45

30

35

40

25

Smallest Value = 25

RANGE = Largest Value Smallest Value

= 45 25
= 20

Now consider another situation

The following are the daily wages of 8 factory

workers of two garments factories A and B. Find the
range of salaries in peso (Php).
Factory A:
Factory B:

400, 450, 520, 380, 482, 495, 575, 450

450, 460, 462, 480, 450, 450, 400, 600

Questions:
1. What is the mean wage of each group of workers?
2. What is the range of wages of each group of workers?
3. For this case, are you convinced that the group with lower range
has more consistent wages?

Though the range is the simplest and

easiest to find measure of variability, it is not a
stable measure. Its value can fluctuate greatly
even with a change in just a single value, either
the highest or lowest.

The Average/Mean Deviation

The dispersion of a set of data about the

average of these data is the average deviation
or the mean deviation.

How to find the average/mean

deviation:

where

A.D. is the average deviation,

is the individual score
is the mean
is the number of scores
is the absolute value of the deviation
from the mean

Procedure in computing the average deviation

(Refer to the activity about wages of factory workers)

1. Find the mean of the scores.

Factory A: 400, 450, 520, 380, 482, 495, 575, 450

mean () =
2. Find the absolute difference between each score and
the mean.

3. Find the sum of the absolute differences and then

divide by N.

= 49

or you may present using a table

400

469

-69

69

450

469

-19

19

520

469

51

51

380

469

-89

89

482

469

13

13

495

469

26

26

575

469

106

106

450

469

-19

19

Total

392

(Refer to the activity about wages of factory workers)

1. Find the mean of the scores.

Factory B: 450, 460, 462, 480, 450, 450, 400, 600

mean () =
2. Find the absolute difference between each score and
the mean.

3. Find the sum of the absolute differences and then

divide by N.

Lower Average
Deviation means
more consistent
scores.

450

469

-19

19

460

469

-9

462

469

-7

480

469

11

11

450

469

-19

19

450

469

-19

19

400

469

-69

69

600

469

131

131

Total

284

Find the Average Deviation of the

following:
1. Science Achievement
Scores:
60, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95

2. The weights in kilogram

of 10 students are:
52,
55, 50, 55, 43, 45, 40, 48,
45, and 47

The average deviation

gives a better approximate
than the range. However, it
does not lend itself readily
to mathematical treatment
for deeper analysis.

Its the
standard
deviation.

Then what
measure of
variability is the
most reliable?

The Standard Deviation

Compute
the standard deviation of the set of
test scores:
1. Find the
mean.

2. Find the deviation from the

mean.
3. Square the deviations.

4. Add all the squared deviations.

5. Compute for the standard
deviation.

39

22

17

289

10

22

-12

144

24

22

16

22

-6

36

19

22

-3

26

22

16

29

22

49

30

22

64

22

-17

289

SUM 900

What does a
standard
deviation of 10
imply?

So does that mean

that a lower
standard deviation
means less varied
scores?

It means that most of the

scores are within 10 units
from the mean.

Thats correct!
Lower standard deviation
shows more consistent
scores.

Lets practice
Compare the standard deviation of the scores
of the three students in their Mathematics
quizzes.
Student

Mathematics Quizzes

97, 92, 96, 95, 90

94, 94, 92, 94, 96

95. 94, 93, 96, 92

Anticipation-Reaction Guide
Before

Questions
Which measure of central tendency is generally
used in determining the size of the most saleable
shoes in a department store?
What is the most reliable measure of variability?
Which measure of central tendency is greatly
affected by extreme scores?
Margie has grades 86, 68, and 79 in her first three
tests in Algebra. What grade must she obtain on
the 4th test to get an average of 78?
What is the median age of a group of employees
whose ages are 36, 38, 24, 21, and 27?
If the range of a set of scores is 14 and the lowest
score is 7, what is the highest score?
What is the standard deviation of the scores 5, 4,
3, 6, and 2?

After

GROUPED
DATA

You were asked to find the mean,

median and mode of the Math grades of
all the students in 2 Learning Groups.
The grades of 72 students are as follows:
857882888992907979
828585837980867995
759291888787787973
798081798891929585
819085848382829097
839091929575787978
898081828276779091
908788838395929176

Organizing data
STEM-LEAF DIAGRAM
First
digits
(stem)

Second digits (leaf)

7
8
9
Grades

Frequency

70-79

18

80-89

33

90-99

21

GROUPED
DATA

RULES FOR GROUPING

1. The intervals must cover the complete

2.
3.
4.
5.

range of values. The intervals need not

begin nor end with the lowest or highest
values.
The intervals must be of equal size.
For effective grouping, the number of
intervals should be between 5 and 15.
Every score must be tallied from highest to
lowest or from lowest to highest.
Thus, the intervals should not overlap.
When an interval ends with a counting

First
digits
(stem)

Second digits (leaf)

(0-4)
(5-9)

(0-4)
(5-9)

(0-4)
(5-9)

The Grouped Data

Grades

Frequency

70
75
80
85
90
95

1
17
18
15
16
5

74
79
84
89
94
99

Steps in Finding the Mean

1. Compute for the Class Mark (CM).

2. Add the frequencies to obtain .

3. Compute for the values of CM by
multiplying each class mark by
corresponding frequency.

the

4. Add the values of CM to obtain

5. Substitute in the values in the formula for the

mean:

Find the mean and the mode.

Score

Frequency )

1
2
3
4
5
6
TOTAL

2
3
5
1
2
4

Find the mean , modal class, and the mode.

Class

80
85
90
95
100

84
89
94
99
104

TOTAL

Frequenc
y

Class
Mark

2
8
11
3
1

Steps in Finding the Median

1. Obtain the cumulative
frequencies.

2. Identify the class that contains the median and

obtain the median location .

3. Apply the formula:

Where = lower boundary of the class containing the median
= the cumulative frequency of the class preceding the class
containing the median
= the number of observations in the class containing the median
= size of class interval

Classes

Cumulative Position

Frequency of the
()
Data

14

16

16

1 16

58
9 12

20
28

36
64

17 36
37 64

13 16
17 20
21 24

24
16

88
104

11
5

115
120

65 88
89 104
105 115

25 28
TOTAL

120

116 120

Mode

The mode is the midpoint

of the modal class.

RANGE

100 199

200 299

300 399

400 499

10

30

20

AVERAGE DEVIATION
Example: Calculate the mean deviation for the
30 marathon times in the grouped distribution
as follows:
Time
(min)
Frequency

128130

131133

134136

137139

140142

143145

12

Finding the Average Deviation

Time (min)

Class Mark
(CM)

Frequency

(min)

128 130

129

387

131 133

130

132

134 136

135

540

137 139

138

414

140 142

141

987

143 145

144

12

1728

30

4188 min

Sum

min

Time
(min)

Frequenc
y
f

f CM

128-130 129

387

10.6

31.8

131-133 132

132

7.6

7.6

134-136 135

540

4.6

18.4

137-139 138

414

1.6

4.8

140-142 141
143-145 144

7
12

987
1728

1.4
4.4

9.8
52.8

30

4188

Class
Mark
(CM)

125.2 min

Variance and Standard Deviation

x

Mid-class value,

Frequency,

40-44

42

42

1764

45-49

47

329

15463

50-54

52

12

624

32448

55-59

57

24

1368

77976

60-64

62

29

1798

111476

65-69

67

14

938

62846

70-74

72

360

25920

75-79

77

231

17787

95

5690

345680

SUM

THANK
YOU!