Question

An engineer is interested in the relative strength of machine parts made of two different metals. She measures the force required to break 200 parts made out of plastic, and 200 parts made out of aluminum. After conducting her measurements, she learned that a small number of the plastic parts may have had cracks in them before testing, which would have caused them to break at ridiculously low force levels. (There was no possibility of cracked aluminum parts.) Given the uncertainty about the number of cracked parts in her sample, what measure of central tendency would probably be the best to provide a fair comparison between the relative strengths of the two materials

Answer 1

Median

Step-by-step explanation:

Since the engineer is interested in the relative strength of machine parts made of two different metals. And after conducting her measurements, she learned that a small number of the plastic parts may have had cracks in them before testing, which would have caused them to break at ridiculously low force levels. Whereas, there was no possibility of cracked aluminum parts.

This small crack in the plastic part will affect the mean (average) value if it is used as a central tendency for comparison. This same thing will affect the mode and the range of the value of strength.

The best measure of central of tendency to use is median since the affected cracked part in the plastic is minimal.