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Answer: 4 (A.) Arithmetic Mean

The document discusses different types of averages used to summarize data: 1) The arithmetic mean is calculated by summing all values and dividing by the number of observations. It is widely used but sensitive to outliers. 2) The harmonic mean is useful for averaging rates or speeds. It is calculated by dividing the number of observations by the sum of the inverse of each value. 3) The geometric mean is the nth root of the product of n non-negative values. It better represents skewed data than the arithmetic mean. 4) The median is the middle value of ordered data. It is less affected by outliers than the mean and better represents skewed data.

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33 views

Answer: 4 (A.) Arithmetic Mean

The document discusses different types of averages used to summarize data: 1) The arithmetic mean is calculated by summing all values and dividing by the number of observations. It is widely used but sensitive to outliers. 2) The harmonic mean is useful for averaging rates or speeds. It is calculated by dividing the number of observations by the sum of the inverse of each value. 3) The geometric mean is the nth root of the product of n non-negative values. It better represents skewed data than the arithmetic mean. 4) The median is the middle value of ordered data. It is less affected by outliers than the mean and better represents skewed data.

Uploaded by

Nikhil Ajmani
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Answer: 4

(a.) Arithmetic Mean:


The arithmetic mean (or the average, simple mean) is computed by
summing all numbers in an array of numbers (xi) and then dividing by the
number of observations (n) in the array.
Mean = = Xi/n, the sum is over all i's.
The mean uses all of the observations, and each observation affects the
mean. Even though the mean is sensitive to extreme values; i.e., extremely
large or small data can cause the mean to be pulled toward the extreme
data; it is still the most widely used measure of location. This is due to
thefact that the mean has valuable mathematical properties that make itcon
venient for use with inferential statistical analysis. For example, the sum of
the deviations of the numbers in a set of data from the mean is zero, and the
sum of the squared deviations of the numbers in a set of data from the mean
is the minimum value.
(b) Harmonic Mean:
The harmonic mean (H) is another specialized average, which is useful in
averaging variables expressed as rate per unit of time, such as mileage per
hour, number of units produced per day. The harmonic mean (H) of n nonzero numerical values x(i) is: H = n/ [(1/x(i)].
An Application: Suppose 4 machines in a machine shop are used to
produce the same part. However, each of the four machines takes 2.5, 2.0,
1.5, and6.0 minutes to make one part, respectively. What is the average rate
of speed?
The harmonic means is: H = 4/ [(1/2.5) + (1/2.0) + 1/ (1.5) + (1/6.0)] =2.31
minutes.
If all machines working for one hour, how many parts will be produced? Since
four machines running for one hour represent 240 minutes of operating time,
then: 240 / 2.31 = 104 parts will be produced.
(c) The Geometric Mean:
The geometric mean (G) of n non-negative numerical values is the nth Root
of the product of the n values.
If some values are very large in magnitude and others are small, then the
geometric mean is a better representative of the data than the simple
average. Ina "geometric series", the most meaningful average is the
geometric mean (G).The arithmetic mean is very biased toward the larger
numbers in the series.

(d) Median:
The median is the middle value in an ordered array of observations. If there
is an even number of observations in the array, the median is the average of
the two middle numbers. If there is an odd number of data in the array, the
median is the middle number. The median is often used to summarize the
distribution of an outcome. If the distribution is skewed, the median and the
interquartile range (IQR) may be better than other measures to indicate
where the observed data are concentrated. Generally, the median provides a
better measure of location than the mean when there are some extremely
large or small observations; i.e., when the data are skewed to the right or to
the left. For this reason, median income is used as the measure of location
for the U.S. household income. Note that if the median is less than the mean,
the data set is skewed to the right. If the median is greater than the mean,
the data set is skewed to the left. For normal population, the sample median
is distributed normally with m = the mean, and standard error of the median
(p/2) times standard error of the mean. The mean has two distinct
advantages over the median. It is more stable, and one can compute the
mean based of two samples by combining the two means.
(e) Mode:
The mode is the most frequently occurring value in a set of observations. The
classic example is the shirt/shoe manufacturer who wants to decide what
sizes to introduce. Data may have two modes. In this case, we say the data
are bimodal, and sets of observations with more than two modes are referred
to as multimodal. Note that the mode is not a helpful measure of location,
because there can be more than one mode or even no mode. When the
mean and the median are known, it is possible to estimate the mode for the
unimodal distribution using the other two averages as follows:
Mode 3(median) - 2(mean)
This estimate is applicable to both grouped and ungrouped data sets.

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