Lesson 2

Discover

 

Sometimes a set of data includes a value that is much different than the rest. In the following activity you will explore how mean, median, and mode can be affected by one of these values.

 

Try This 1

 

The table shows the average housing costs in some major cities in Canada. Use this information to answer the questions.

 

City	Average Housing Prices ($1000)
St. John	168
Winnipeg	243
Halifax	269
Saskatoon	310
Montréal	324
Edmonton	329
Vancouver	809

Source: The Canadian Real Estate Association <http://www.crea.ca/public/news_stats/statistics.htm>;

1. Estimate the typical average cost of a house in Canada.
2. Is there a city (or cities) whose average house price is not similar to the others?
3. What factors may influence the difference in the average price of a house from city to city?

Save your responses in your course folder.

 

Share 1

 

Share your findings with a partner and answer these questions.

1. Which measure of central tendency (mean, median, or mode) would be most affected by one or more piece(s) of data?
2. What should be done with data that does not align with the rest?

If required, place a summary of your discussion in your course folder.