Question

A charity needs to report its typical donations received. The following is a list of the donations from one week. A histogram is provided to display the data.

10, 10, 10, 10, 15,15,15,19, 20, 20, 20, 25, 25, 25, 30, 30, 55, 55

A graph titled Donations to Charity in Dollars. The x-axis is labeled 10 to 19, 20 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, and 50 to 59. The y-axis is labeled Frequency. There is a shaded bar up to 8 above 10 to 19, up to 6 above 20 to 29, up to 2 above 30 to 39, and up to 2 above 50 to 59. There is no shaded bar above 40 to 49.

Which measure of center should the charity use to accurately represent the data? Explain your answer.

The median of 22.7 is the most accurate to use to show that they have plenty of money.
The mean of 20 is the most accurate to use to show that they need more money.
The median of 20 is the most accurate to use, since the data is skewed.
The mean of 22.7 is the most accurate to use, since the data is skewed.

Answer 1

The median of 20 is the most accurate to use, since the data is skewed.

The most accurate measure of center to use in this case is the median of 20. This is because the data is skewed, with a few high-value donations (such as the two donations of 55 dollars) that pull the mean up. However, most of the donations are clustered around 10 to 20 dollars. As a result, the median, which is the middle value when the data is sorted in order, is a better representation of the "typical" donation amount.

In this case, the median is 20, which means that half of the donations were less than 20 dollars and half were more. This is a more accurate representation of the central tendency of the data than the mean of 22.7, which is influenced by the high-value donations. Therefore, the charity should use the median of 20 to accurately represent the typical donations received.