Lesson 4

In Self-Check 1 you looked at different situations and tried to decide which measure of central tendency is the most appropriate to use. In the next Self-Check you will think about how different measures of central tendency can be helpful to different people, depending on the focus the person has. If you choose a measure of central tendency that favours a particular viewpoint, then the results can be misleading to some people.

Self-Check 2

Revisit the 2011 Washington Capitals’ salaries table from Lesson 1. Use this table to answer questions 1 to 5.

1. Would other sports teams have a similar set of data? Explain why or why not. Answer
2. Calculate the mean, median, and mode for earnings. Answer
3. If you were the general manager of this team and had to report the average salary of your players to the following audiences, which measure would you use and why?
   1. ticket holders
   2. potential players
   3. your accountant
   
   Answer
4. Calculate two different trimmed means for this data. Answer
5. Does one of the trimmed means from question 5 better represent the central tendency of this data? If so, explain why. Answer
6. Give situations where one of the measures of central tendency is more useful than the others. Answer
7. What is another data set that would have very different values for the three measures of central tendency? Answer