Question

Bridgit has been eating apples every day to impress her doctor. She eats 3, 5, 8, 2, 11, 2, 4, and 7 on the days leading up to her appointment. Should Bridgit use the mean, median, or mode to describe how many apples she ate each day? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

To accurately represent Bridgit's apple eating habits, the median should be used because it balances out the extreme values and is less affected by outliers compared to the mean. The mode could also be mentioned as the most frequent amount eaten.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the best measure of central tendency for Bridgit's apple eating habits, we need to consider the mean, median, and mode of the number of apples she ate each day. The mean (average) is 7.7, the median (middle value when numbers are ordered) is 7.5, and the mode (most frequent number) is seven. Since the mean is skewed due to the presence of the outlier values of 11 and 2 apples (which are both quite different from the other numbers), it might not be the best representation of her typical daily consumption. The median is less affected by outliers and provides a better summary of her typical daily amount. However, the mode is the most frequent number of apples she ate and might be a simple way to describe her eating habit if she's looking for the number that appears most. Taking this into consideration, the median would be the most appropriate measure for Bridgit to use to describe how many apples she ate each day because it balances out the extreme values effectively.