Final answer:
The median temperature is likely the best measure of central tendency for the reported high temperatures of selected world cities on an October day, as it is not influenced by the outliers present in the data.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine which measure of central tendency best describes the reported high temperatures for selected world cities on an October day, we can consider the mean, median, and mode of the data. However, since there are a few outlier temperatures that are much higher or lower than the rest, such as 91, 90, 42, and 38, the mean may not represent the data well, as it is susceptible to skew from outliers. The median and mode are more robust measures against outliers.
Looking at the data:
- 62, 72, 66, 79, 83, 61, 62, 85, 72, 64, 74, 71, 42, 38, 91, 66, 77, 90, 74, 63, 64, 68, 42
The median temperature, which is the middle value when the temperatures are lined up in ascending order, would likely be the best measure of central tendency to represent this set of temperatures, as it will not be influenced by the extreme values (outliers).