Question

In a store flyer, 7 TVs were advertised at the following prices: $799, $949, $709, $619, $807, $675, $949. The store manager wants to advertise that the typical cost of TVs sold at his store is better than those sold at the competing stores. Which measure of central tendency would best show this?

A. Mean
B. Median
C. Mode
D. Range

Answer 1

To advertise the typical cost of TVs sold at his store, the store manager should use the median, as it is less affected by the high prices of some TVs and will reflect a more typical, and lower, value.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine which measure of central tendency the store manager should use to advertise the typical cost of TVs, we must consider the dataset: $799, $949, $709, $619, $807, $675, $949. We want to choose the measure that will reflect the most favorable typical price. The mean would be influenced by the high prices of the two $949 TVs, possibly raising the average and not representing the majority of prices effectively. The mode is $949, which is the highest value and would not be a good measure to show lower prices. The median, on the other hand, would find the middle value when the prices are sorted in order, which is less affected by extremes. In this case, we can order the prices as $619, $675, $709, $799, $807, $949, $949, and see that the median price is $799, which would be a more typical and lower value. Hence, the median provides a better representation of the typical cost in this instance.

So, for the advertisement of the typical cost of TVs sold at his store, the store manager should use the median over the mean, mode, or range.