Question

18, 19, 20, 20, 23, 26, 260

What is the better measure of center for these data? Mean or median? Why? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

Median

Explanation:

This set of data has an extreme outlier, which will throw off the mean. The median, on the other hand, does not change or changes minimally whether or not the outlier is there.

By default, the mean is always better, but if an outlier, such as this one, is too large, the median is better.