Final answer:
The mean, which cannot be used with qualitative data, can only be used with quantitative data. The mode, on the other hand, can be used with both qualitative and quantitative data, as it represents the most frequent value. The median, requiring ranked data, represents the middle value of a dataset.
Step-by-step explanation:
Specify the single average—the mode, median, or the mean—described by the following statements:
- a. It never can be used with qualitative data.
- b. It sometimes can be used with qualitative data.
- c. It always can be used with qualitative data.
- d. It can be used with ranked data.
- e. Strictly speaking, it can only be used with quantitative data.
Here are the explanations:
- a. The mean never can be used with qualitative data.
- b. The mode sometimes can be used with qualitative data.
- c. The mode always can be used with qualitative data, as it represents the most frequently occurring category.
- d. The median can be used with ranked data since it represents the middle value of a dataset.
- e. The mean can only be used with quantitative data, as it requires numerical values to calculate.
The mode can be used with any type of data, including qualitative, and represents the most frequent data point. The median is suitable for quantitative data that can be ranked, and it indicates the middle value of a dataset. Lastly, the mean, or the arithmetic average, is a calculation that requires quantitative data and is the sum of all values divided by the number of values in the dataset. The median is often a better measure for datasets with outliers as it is not skewed by extreme values, unlike the mean.