Central Tendency, Essay Example

Mean is the average of the total amount of data collected. From the data collected and the observations made at Cytec Corporation, the mean was found to be 6.375. This is for 24 observations that were made both in the morning and afternoon sessions. This is not very higher or lower than I would have expected. Median is the number which is at the center of all the numbers of the data collected. However this applies if the number of observations is odd numbers, in case the numbers are even, the average between the two middle numbers is taken. In our case, the median number is between 6 and 7; therefore, the median becomes 6.5. This is because the total numbers are even (24) hence the median is between two numbers. This also is not very far from the mean of the total. The mode usually refers to the number which occurs mostly in the data, in our case, number 7 occurs six times hence it is our mode. All these measures are at an average hence there are not lower or higher than it would have been expected. This shows a clearly that there is normal distribution as all the variables lie within the same range of 6 and 7.

The mean as a measure of central tendency gives precise and accurate variable that is reliable. Mean in this case is 6.375 and represents the average of all data in the study. Therefore, it is the variable that describes and gives accurate information as expected. Mean involves all the numbers in the series and not only a few numbers in the middle of the series like the case of mode and median variables.

Standard deviation is usually used to show the measure of variability or the dispersion. It shows the variation that exists from the mean or the average. Very low standard deviation shows clearly that the data points are very close to the mean. High standard deviation shows that or indicates that data is very much spread over large range of values. In our case, the standard deviation is 2.2138 which show that the range of the data was not very much spread from one another. The standard deviation number obtained is not a surprise because it is a clear indication that there is no wider variation between the data collected. It is a clear sign that there is no a lot of variation from the collected data.