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Describe a scenario where the average can be misleading. And if the average is misleading, what measure of center could you use instead? And why?

User KKD
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The mean can be misleading if there is an outlier in the given set of data. An outlier is a figure that is way outside of the others. It will be significantly higher or significantly lower than the other figures. For example, if you were calculating the average score of your high school’s football team in a three month season, you would want to have the most accurate number to present. Say that for every game except for one, your team won with a HUGE lead on the other. Your team would earn between 70-84 points every game, while the other teams would barely have 7-14 points. Your team’s mean score would be about 77 points. However, say that during one game, your team faced an embarrassingly huge loss. They earned 7 points over the entire game. If you put this game’s score in with the others, it would drag your team’s mean score way lower than it was in every other game. This provides an inaccurate view of your team’s actual average performance. You would then want to use the median as your center of data. It eliminates the outliers and gives the exact number in the center of your data set. This was a bit long, but I hope it helped!! Let me know.
User Herzult
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Answer: When the mean doesn't show what the results really mean. The mean treatment outcome (or average) is often reported in comparing the results of different groups in a clinical trial. ... The mean may be misleading because of uneven spread in the results or uncertainty about whether patients had an important improvement.

Explanation:

User Daryal
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