Making Sense of Measures of Center Investigation 2 Measures of Central Tendencies Mean – add up data values and divide by total number in set Median – middle number of an ordered set of data Mode – data value that occurs most often Describe Variability in a Distribution Range Outlier Clusters Gaps

2.1 The Mean as an Equal Share 5.25 4.75 6.50 + 6.10 22.60 22.60 4 = $ 5.65 Mean is often called the average of the data. You can also think of the mean as the amount each person gets if everyone gets an equal share.

2.2 The Mean as a Balance Point in a Distribution 13 = 13 Both sides add up to 13 places from the mean because it is the balance point. 3 6 2 4 1

2.3 Repeated Values in a Distribution Mode – The data value that occurs most frequency in a set of data. Median – The midpoint in an ordered distribution. Mode Median

2.4 Measures of Center and Shapes of Distribution