Question

The table shows data from a survey about the number of times families eat at restaurants during a week. The families are either from Rome, Italy or New York, New York:

Maximum Minimum       Q1        Q3      IQR     Median    Mean   σ
Rome       16                     0           3          13       10            8.5       8         5.4
NY             20                   1           4.5         6       1.5           5.5        7.25    5.4

Which of the choices below best describes how to measure the center of this data?

A. Both centers are best described with the mean.
B. Both centers are best described with the median.
C. The Rome data center is best described by the mean. The New York data center is best described by the median.
D. The Rome data center is best described by the median. The New York data center is best described by the mean.

Answer 1

The best answer choice is:

C. The Rome data center is best described by the mean. The New York data center is best described by the median.

By making the box and whisker plot of Rome and New York data, there is clearly an outlier in the new york data.

Therefore,
As the data set for New York has an outlier and the mean is skewed. So, in this case, we would use the median.

The Rome data set is symmetrical, and there is no outlier, so we can use the mean.