Math Problem Statement
Answer the questions below. (a) The 10 participants in an experiment had the following reaction times (in milliseconds): 773,774,776,781,785,788,794,809,811,827 . Which measure should be used to summarize the data?
Mean
Median
Mode
Solution
To determine which measure to use to summarize the data, let's first analyze the reaction times:
Reaction times (in milliseconds): 773, 774, 776, 781, 785, 788, 794, 809, 811, 827
- Mean: The mean is the average of the data points. It's useful when the data is symmetric and there are no extreme outliers.
- Median: The median is the middle value when the data is sorted. It is less sensitive to extreme values and is a good measure when the data is skewed or contains outliers.
- Mode: The mode is the most frequent value in the dataset. In this case, since all the values are unique, there is no mode.
Observations:
- The data set seems fairly symmetric, and there are no extreme outliers or significant skew.
- The mean can be a good choice here because the data does not show strong outliers or skewness.
Answer: Mean is the best measure to summarize the data.
Would you like further clarification on any of the measures of central tendency?
Here are some related questions:
- What happens to the mean when there are extreme outliers in the data?
- How do you calculate the mean, median, and mode for a data set?
- How do you determine if the data is skewed based on the mean and median?
- Why is the median preferred over the mean when the data is highly skewed?
- How can you identify the mode when working with continuous data?
Tip: The mean is ideal for symmetric data without extreme outliers, while the median is better when dealing with skewed data or outliers.
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Math Problem Analysis
Mathematical Concepts
Statistics
Measures of Central Tendency
Formulas
Mean = (Sum of all data points) / (Number of data points)
Median = Middle value of sorted data
Mode = Most frequent value in the data
Theorems
None specific
Suitable Grade Level
Grades 7-9
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