Let's analyze each question to identify whether "mean," "median," or "mode" is being used:

(a) "Half of the houses in the new development are priced under $275,000."

• Answer: Median
  • Explanation: The median represents the middle value in a dataset. Saying "half of the houses are priced under $275,000" suggests that $275,000 is the midpoint, hence the median.

(b) "The average bill for lunch at the college union is $7.95."

• Answer: Mean
  • Explanation: The term "average" typically refers to the mean, which is calculated by adding up all the bills and dividing by the number of bills.

(c) "The college bookstore sells more blue college sweatshirts than any other color."

• Answer: Mode
  • Explanation: The mode is the value that appears most frequently in a dataset. In this case, blue is the most common sweatshirt color sold, making it the mode.

(d) "There are as many people age 37 and younger in the United States as there are people age 37 and older."

• Answer: Median
  • Explanation: The statement implies a middle point in age distribution, where half the population is younger and half is older than 37. This represents the median age.

(e) "The majority of full-time students carry a load of 12 credit hours per semester."

• Answer: Mode
  • Explanation: The mode is the value that occurs most frequently. Since the majority carry 12 credit hours, 12 is the mode of the credit hour distribution.

(f) "The average annual return on an investment is 7.1%."

• Answer: Mean
  • Explanation: The "average" return suggests the mean, which is the typical calculation for the expected annual return in financial contexts.

Would you like further explanations or details on any of these answers?

Related Questions

1. What is the primary difference between mean and median in a dataset?
2. How is the mode useful in real-world applications?
3. In what situations is the median a better representation than the mean?
4. Why might the mode be irrelevant in some datasets?
5. How can extreme values (outliers) affect the mean?

Tip

When dealing with skewed data, the median often gives a better measure of central tendency than the mean.