Question

Which measure is most appropriate to describe the center of the data in the stem-and-leaf plot below?

pounds of food collected

0 l 5 6
1 l 0 2 3 3 4
2 l 1 9
3 l
4 l 2
5 l 1

Answer 1

For the stem-and-leaf plot of pounds of food collected, the most appropriate measure of center is the median, providing a robust representation of the central tendency of the data.

In the given stem-and-leaf plot depicting the pounds of food collected, the most appropriate measure to describe the center of the data is the median.

The median is the middle value in a dataset when it is ordered from least to greatest. In this case, the stem-and-leaf plot already presents the data in ascending order within each stem. To find the median, we look for the middle value. Since the data is arranged systematically, we can identify the median as the value that separates the lower half from the upper half of the dataset.

Looking at the stems and their corresponding leaves, the median is the value in the middle of the dataset, which is the 3 in the second stem. The median is less sensitive to extreme values or outliers than the mean, making it a robust measure of central tendency.

In contrast, the mean (average) might be influenced by extreme values, the interquartile range focuses on the spread of the middle 50% of the data, and the range considers the difference between the maximum and minimum values.

The question probable may be:

Which measure is most appropriate to describe the center of the data in the stem-and-leaf plot below?

A stem and leaf plot showing the pounds of food collected is shown.

Stem Leaf

0 5 6

1 0 2 3 3 4

2 1 9

3

4 2

5 1

interquartile range

median

mean

range

Answer 2

The appropriate measure of central tendency for the data in the stem and leaf plot, which is skewed to the right is the median

What is the median of a dataset?; The median of a dataset is the value located at the center of the dataset when the data are arranged in increasing order of magnitude.

The data in the stem and leaf plot can be presented as follows;

5, 6, 10, 12, 13, 13, 14, 21, 29, 42, 51

The number of data points are 11, therefore, the median is the 6th term, which is the number 13

The mode of the data is 13

The mean of the data is; (5+6+10+12+13+13+14+21+29+42+51)/11 ≈ 19.64

The mean is larger than the median, which indicates that the data values are skewed to the right

The appropriate measure of the center of the data whereby some of the values are much larger than the median and a few values, hence the data is skewed is the median