Choosing the Best Measure to Describe Data

Introduction

We can find either of the three measures of center for a given data set. However, we find that one of the three is the best measure to describe the given data.

Rules to find the best measure to describe data

If the data points do not repeat and if there are no extreme values the best measure of center to describe a data set is mean.
If some of the data points repeat, the one that has maximum occurrence is the mode, which is the best measure of center in this case for the data set.
If the data set has some extremely low or extremely high values as compared to other numbers in the data set, the best measure of center for the data set is the median.

Example 1

Which is the best measure to describe set of data given below?

17, 12, 18, 10, 15, 11, 12, 16, 19

Solution

Step 1:

There are no repeating data and no extreme values.

Step 2:

So the best measure to describe given data is Mean.

Example 2

25 , 29 , 36 , 35 , 36 , 26 , 24 , 37 , 22 , 28 , 36

Solution

Step 1:

Some of the data repeat for example 36

Step 2:

So the best measure to describe given data is Mode.