Measures of Central Tendency, Mean, Median and Mode
Introduction
We are all interested in cricket but have you ever wondered that during the match why the run rate of the particular over is projected and what does run rate mean? Or when you get your examination result card you mention the aggregate percentage. Again what is the meaning of aggregate? All these quantities in real life make it easy to represent a collection of data in terms of a single value. It is called as Statistics.
Statistics deals with the collection of data and information for a particular purpose. The tabulation of each run for each ball in cricket gives the statistics of the game. The representation of any such collection of data can be done in multiple ways, like through tables, graphs, pie-charts, bar graphs, pictorial representation etc.
Now consider a 50 over ODI match going between India and Australia. India scored 370 runs by the end of first innings. How do you decide whether India put a good score or not? It’s pretty simple right; you find the overall run rate which is good for such a score.
Measures of central tendency
Often in statistics, we tend to represent a set of data by a representative value which would approximately define the entire collection. This representative value is called as the measures of central tendency. The name itself suggests that it is a value around which the data is centered.
The measures of central tendency are given by various parameters but the most commonly used are mean, median and mode. These parameters are discussed below.
Mean, Median and Mode:
Mean
Mean is most commonly used measures of central tendency. It actually represents the average of the given collection of data. It is applicable for both continuous and discrete data.
It is equal to the sum of all the values in the collection of data divided by the total number of values.
Suppose we have n values in a set of data namely as \( x_1 ,x_2,x_3……………….x_n \) Then the mean of data is given by:
\(\bar{x} = \frac{x_{1}+x_{2}+x_{3}+……..+x_{n}}{n}\)
It can also be denoted as:
\(\bar{x} = \frac{\sum_{i=0}^{n}x_{i}}{n}\)
Median
Generally median represents the mid value of the given set of data when arranged in a particular order.
Median: Given that the data collection is arranged in ascending or descending order, the following method is applied:
- i) If number of values or observations in the given data is odd, then the median is given by \( \left( \frac{n+1}{2}\right)^{th}\) observation.
- ii) ) If in the given data set the number of values or observations is even then the median is given by the average of \( \left( \frac n2 \right)^{th} ~ and ~ \left( \frac {n+1}{2} \right)^{th} \) observation.
Mode
The most frequent number occurring in the data set is known as the mode.
Consider the following data set which represents the marks obtained by different students in a subject.
| Name | Anmol | Kushagra | Garima | Ashwini | Geetika | Shakshi |
| Marks Obtained (out of 100) | 73 | 80 | 73 | 70 | 73 | 65 |
The maximum frequency observation is 73 ( as three students scored 73 marks), so the mode of the given data collection is 73.
Let us see the difference between mean median and mode through an example.
Example: The given table shows the scores obtained by different players in a match. What is mean, median and mode of the given data?
| S.No | Name | Runs Scored |
| 1 | Sachin | 80 |
| 2 | Yuvraj | 52 |
| 3 | Virat | 40 |
| 4 | Sehwag | 52 |
| 5 | Rohit | 70 |
| 6 | Harbhajan | 1 |
| 7 | Dhoni | 6 |
Solution:
i) The mean is given by \( \bar x \) = \( \frac{\sum^n_{i=1} x_i}{n}\)
\(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\) ⇒\(\bar x \) = \( \frac {80 + 52 + 40 + 52 + 70+1+6}{7} \)
\(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\) ⇒\(\bar x \) = 43
The mean of the given data is 43 .
ii) To find out the median let us first arrange the given data in ascending order
| Name | Harbhajan | Dhoni | Virat | Yuvraj | Sehwag | Rohit | Sachin |
| Runs | 1 | 6 | 40 | 52 | 52 | 70 | 80 |
As the number of items in the data is odd in number the median is \( \left( \frac {n+1}{2} \right)^{th}\) observation.
⇒ Median = \( \left( \frac {7+1}{2} \right)^{th} \) observation = 52
⇒ Median observation
iii) Mode is most frequent data which is 52.