Question

What are more appropriate measures of center and spread for a data set ?

Select two choices: one for the center and one for the center.

A: Better measure of center: mean
B: Better measure of spread : interquartile (IQR )
C: Better measure of center : median
D: Better measure of spread: standard deviation

Answer 1

Answer: Better measure of spread : interquartile range (IQR )

Better measure of center : the median

Step-by-step explanation: I took the test

Answer 2

Median and IQR

Explanation:

Out of 3 central tendencies, mean, median and mode, median is the better measure.

This is due to

i) Mean is affected by extreme values

ii) Mean is not correct if more outliers are present

iii) Mean may not represent the nature of the data whether skewed right or left.

But median the middle entry is not affected by extreme items or outliers so median is better than mean,

For measure of spread, IQR is better since extreme items will show higher std deviation, and also some outliers mislead. But IQR gives a good idea.